


Mary sue goes around

by Caroltn



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-04-02
Packaged: 2019-03-26 00:04:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 21,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13845855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caroltn/pseuds/Caroltn
Summary: No matter what they said, present is no better than yesterday.No matter what they do, I could always follow through.Stories can be retold,and songs could be rewound.If you would just wait up; yes, I do!Time can flow back to the day that is doomed.





	1. Eggs and Kiwi

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [[HP]和玛丽苏开玩笑](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/360909) by 打酱油而已. 



The creepiest story Ginny ever heard is told by Ron, on a mid summernight, a life time ago.

A carton of eggs are chit-chating. Firsty told Secondie: Check it out, dude! Lasty was all hairy and stuff. So Secondie whispered something to Thirdie: Hey, Lasty surly bears a lot hair. On and on, this small talk goes from forth to fifth. And the filthy fifth comes to sense and asks the Last: Why are you fluffy as chicks? Lasty was all fumed, she yelled: cuz I am a god-damn kiwi fruit!　　  
　　

Those who heard the joke all held their breath, blaming Ron to be black-humored. Only Ginny was struck with epiphany: Ron is the one true Morty, or else, how could he tell, the life-long nightmare of Ginny?  
　

It happens every night: something unknown and unspeakable was chasing her in the dream; Ginny just kept running, dashing out as if her life was on a thread. And each time when she misstepped, she would slip and fall, and woke up in the end. Waking up with your twin sister next to your pillow case was nothing close to pleasant; this reminds Ginny that the night mare wasn't over and it has seasons of sequels on air.  
　　

Her twin sister, Aquamarine Weasley, has got the worst name of all times.  
When it comes to talking about the origin of thy name, Mum and Paalways have that halo of satisfaction and happiness.  
　　“Let me tell you the story of your birth.”  
　　

Here goes the begining of Mama's story:“On a day when sun shone bright, an infant bursted into tears in the cell of St.Mungo's……”  
　　

And, we know the rest: the Weasley finally got the daughter they have always wanted and it's a "buy one get one for free" deal, both cheap and perfect. While pa was holding his little daughter, happy like a fool, a great name suddenly sneaked into the back of his head.  
　　“Aqua, Aquamarine Weasley.”  
　　“What a beautiful name!”  
　　“Yep, it's like a lightnening that strikes me with idea. I couldn't quite believe it myself!”a warm smile crawled onto pa's lips,“Molly, I feel it in my guts! Our little girl is gonna be a great wizard!”  
　　

Gazing down at her little girl's baby face, Mum couldn't help but to kiss her on the cheek.  
　　

The little girl seemed to have a sense of what was going on, so she opened her tuorquise eyes, which glimmered for tenth of a millisecond. Seeing all those strange faces up close, she was not scared at all, and started to giggle at once. Her curved up lips and beautiful smile captured the Weasley couple's heart. She was just adorable!  
　　

Just like Ginny's night mare, the story has many sequels and can go on gibberjabbing more about the significance that is Ginny's sister. When the time like this comes, mum and pa would be suddenly Shakespeare Junior, employing all those wonderful rhetorics to chant the epics of her sister; great family time, just like always. Ginny couldn'tenjoy more during family time like this, but still couldn't stop herself from wondering: what is my part in the story? Where am I ?  
　　

She finally got it: 'you' could be both singular and plural.

There goes the old saying: " All work and no play makes Jack his mama's favourite boy." If you have a sister, who was crawling all over the periodic table of the elements at the age of one month, drawn to Da Kapital at the age of three month, mastered English, Russian, Japenese, French, German, American, Italian, and Austrian at the age of one, and have a deep understanding of Ancient Latino; you may also consider it an honor to be part of the "you".  At least you are still your mama's little girl, even though you might not be her favourite.  
　　

Ginny is supposed to be grateful, but being the cold-hearted little bastard she is, she wasn't able to strike the mental balance and have developed some issues about it: She has specrophobis, which means she is afraid of all reflective surfaces.  
　　

When Ginny was still little, her mother made an annoucement at dinner time, talking about taking her twin sister to Diagon Alley. And allthe boys just whined and claimed it to be "unfair". In order to shut them up for a second, mama took out a deck of parchment paper.  
　　“Aqua has designed all of this; we are going to see whether somebody is going to buy it or not.”  
　　Paper is passed among the boys and amazement is exchanged.

Hours later, mama and pa came back with bags filled with gallons and gold. Pa couldn't wait to retell sister's great performance at Windsor's and mama took out gifts for every one. Ginny remembered that hers was an outfit she has always wanted, handed to her by her twin sister; she was a little scared to take it, and couldn't tear her gaze off the genius that she has shared facial appearances with. The staring contest came to an end when her sister smiled and just tossed the clothing onto her. Ginny shrinked, jumped up from the floor and rushed into the toilet; she filled the sink with water, and dunked her face in it.  
　　

Drown yourself, drown yourself, DROWN YOURSELF! If you are drowned and gone, you wouldn't need to deal with that smile anymore.  
　　

That great, satisfactory, confident, magnificent smile; it also comes with a little condescension, just like a joke. That smile implies and hints that so long as I am happy, you will have happiness to indulge yourself in.  
　　

Ginny eventually fails her suicidal attempts, because George wanted to use the toilet and shush her out. But the moment she lifted her head from the sink, she felt a pang of realization.  
　　I recalled that I didn't have a twin!  
　　

This idea was like the name that managed to sneak into Arthur's brain on a sunny day years ago; it flooded Ginny's mind and haunt her ever since.  
　　

I rememebered……I seem to remember……  
　　

Ginny might remember something, but this tiny bit of clue are like that puppy everyone love, it circles you, tickles you ,but when you do want to reach out and touch it, it just ran away and disappeared into thin air, leaving Ginny alone with her tiny issues, spectrophobia.  She is afraid of looking into a mirror, and she couldn't bear reflections of all kind.  
　　

Not until hearing about Ron's story, did she finally grip that idea. Dogs breed puppies, cats raise kittens, and kiwi couldn't be incubated from an an egg! This train of thoughts was nothing close to elegance, but the logics here was fine. The person seated there, my self-proclaimed twin sister, who is she exactly?  
　　

True; she is pretty and smart, but that's not the reason that everyone loves her. Ginny came to realize that most of people, once within certain distance, would start to like her, and do things for her unintentionally.  
　　

When Bill holds her tight, his face wasn't showing affection for her little sister, but revealing a sense of half-asleep, just like being drunk and on the edge of doze-off. And for Ginny, being too close to her sister means a pang of dizziness.  
　　

The drunken state of mind and dizziness always have Ginny panicing; and the most terrifying thing is that, everyone would exclaimed with delight and fascination at the first glance of her sister's desgin; but Ginny could see nothing but childish doodling.  
　　

It's either them or me; at least one party of us has been seeing things!  
　　

Ginny is afraid that maybe she is the one with problems.

Slowly, she grows up with her fear and dizziness, and lost her taste for kiwi fruit forever.

A life time has passed, when Ginny was again suffering from dizziness, she would think back to that mid summer night, even though she couldn't recall who was on her side,  and whether there was dessert after dinner. It was only that voice echoing, yelling to her!

I am a god-damn kiwi fruit!


	2. Pals

Ginny has never been to kindergarten nor primary school, so she ended up with no classmates to hang out with. Her writing and countingskills were cultivated by her mother, mostly; sometimes even her sister would bother to tutor her for a while. And when this kind of disaster took place, Ginny always hoped that she could go back to the pure happiness which is illiteracy. No one is fine with taking orders from their little sister, but Ginny pretended to be such an ignorant idiot for the sake of survival.

Burrow stood on the top of a hill and the nearest neighbor is still miles away, living in the town; even a girl could have a witch for mum, she still wouldn't be allowed to go in town. However, Ginny was no ordinary little girl.  
　　

Ginny had no friends, but six brothers and a twin sister. Siblings are just siblings, and they could never replace a true friend.  
　　

Luckily, nature has a mysterious way of working: everyone should have a friend or two. In that sense, Ginny had two good friends: the ghoul in attic and the puppy in town.  
　　

Burrow has a ghoul in her attic; no one knew when it had moved there and no one will know. It lived right above Ginny and her sister's room. And he was never a quiet one, always kicking and bumping things, not intending to have a rest.  
　　

Aquamarine was annoyed, and she hates that ghoul, spites it even. Ginny likes it, because Aqua hates it.  
　　

In nights of haunting illusions, Ginny would sit in bed, listening to the sound of the ghoul knocking on the ceiling. Thump-thump-bump-thump; the fading monologue continues to resonate in the darkness,so Ginny hopped off the bed and found a broom stick. She poked the ceiling.  
　　“Hey there; it would be nice if you could stop knocking. You know, I couldn't fall asleep in the best of times.”  
　　

The neighbor upstairs changed the rhytheme after being poked. Ginny just took that as a challenge and began to reply. Soon enough, she found that the dude upstairs always waited up for her to join in before starting the next tempo. Knock, thump, bump and dumb. It was just like two people chatting.  
　　

Had it not been Aqua throwing her slippers at her, Ginny could spend the whole night doing this.  
　　

She snuggled back beneath her blanket, thinking about another individual losing sleep just like her, and suddenly felt a sort of attachment towards it. She tried to figure out what are ghouls like.  
　　

She pictured a stubborn old man, cute in a strange way.  
　　

Ginny presumed the dude upstairs to be coming of age, because he was all nagging and stuff. Thump, thump, bump, thump; he was knocking to communicate with the people beneath the floor.  
　　

Communicating？！  
　　

Ginny couldn't shrug off this idea, so she thought about it day and night. Soon, she was convinced: it would be a great lot of fun, talking to a ghoul.  
　　

On a night dripping with rain, Ginny sneaked into the attic and whispered through the door crack, "Ghoulie, ghoulie, can you understand me?" Something fliped and floped behind the doors, growling in response.  
　　

But I don't know what you are talking about.

　　“If you could understand me, just knock the door once; if you don't, then never mind.”Ginny waited patiently in the dark; a hundred years had passed, and there came the knock--thump!

Ginny was thrilled, throwing all the warnings from her mum in the back of her head, approaching the door to get closer,“So, are you trying to tell us something when you are knocking the floor?Knock once for an yes.”

　　Another thump.  
　　“Can we be pals?”  
　　Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.  
　　

Ginny returned to her bed triumphantly; ever since then, 'thump' became a synonom for 'pals'.  
　　

After that, she would sneak up the attic for her old pals when no oneis looking.  
　　

Employing the methods of guessing, asking and recording, Ginny learned the language of tapping from Mr. Ghoul and all the information behind the thump. When she finally got a room of her own, she would lay back in bed and use the broom stick to tap-text her old pal.

Ginny's other friend is, well, a loyal street dog. He was the one and only creature in the world--or at least Ginny's world-- that likes Ginny, but hates Aquamarine at the same time.  
　　

At the age of seven, when Ginny witnessed her twin brothers trying to take the shortcut in the backyard and down the hill, she rushed to question about what the hell are they doing.  
　　“Mind your own business and stop bothering us.”  
　　Because they said so; Ginny just followed along. And that was the logics between brother and sister.  
　　

It was nothing nefarious. George and Fred just wandered about in the nearby town and bought a few muggle trick toys. Ginny almost wore her self out for the walking, so once entered the town, she just sit there rooted and refused to walk another single step. She made a promise to her brothers, if they would buy her a popsicle, she would waitquietly in the tree shade for them to come back and pick her up.  
　　They bought her a lemon popsicle, and she just sat in the shadow, licking it with great caution.  
　　A puppy was eyeing her; just to be more precise, the popsicle in her hand.  
　　“Are you sweating?”  
　　Woof！  
　　“Do you wanna have a bite?”  
　　Woof！  
　　“Boo--I won't let ya.”  
　　

Ginny snickered and tried to swallow the whole popsicle; but it was too freezing for her own good. At last, she couldn't bear it anymore and just take it out. The popsicle broke in half, giving the puppy a freetreat.  
　　Staring at that goofy happy dog, which was drooling all over her popsicle, Ginny decided to switch side.  
　　“Eat my popsicle, and you are my dog. Remember, you should  always listen to the alpha dog, that is me.”  
　　Woof！  
　　

Dogs are loyal creatures, once they ate your popsicles, they wouldn't betray you, and would hang out with you. Ginny and the puppy played that old "I throw the shoe and you fetch it back" trick for an entireafternoon, till her brothers came to take her home.  
　　

Next morning, Ginny realized one of her shoes was missing. So she went out without telling her mum, all the way to the nearby town, and found that pupy waiting under a tree, with her missing shoe next to its little paw.  
　　Woof！Said the puppy.  
　　You bastard……said Ginny.  
　　

They became pals; Ginny wanted to give it a home, but her sister hated dogs. So she could just mob a few bacon and cans for him as a compensation. She called him Ruffles, the hound of hell. And he called her 'Woof'.  
　　

The best thing about Ruffles is that when Aquamarine went to town and tried to play catch-and-seek with him, he turned down the offer.  
　　

Each time when Aquamarine did something astonishing, Ginny would tell herself, she could be omnious, but Ruffles would never go fetch the ball she threw; Ruffles only did that for me.  
　　

In Ginny's world, pals are Thump and Woof.


	3. The Secret

Ginny has deep-rooted fear for a bunch of things. Mirrors, her very own mother, kiwi, eating carrots... It's hard to put all of them on a list and almost impossible to give them a ranking. But of all those things Ginny is afraid of, her twin sister and its birth name always give Ginnny the most creep. Unlike their kins, Ginny wouldn't do everything Aqua says, but she dares not to disobey her.  
　　

Ever since the 'nick name incident', Ginny knew her place more clear than ever; there were only two things that she was capable of talkingabout during her sister's presence: facts and more facts. Not a joke dared to slip from her lips.  
　　

Ginny rarely called her sister by her name; she referred to her as "Ahm" instead.  
　　

Aquamarine, a transparent blue, blue-green, or green variety of beryl used as a gem; that's the exact interpretation of this very word, pulled straight out of Merriam-Webster. Personally, Ginny didn't hold any grudge towards this very word; however, referring to her sister as "Aqua" was a different story. It's somewhat Francophonish, somewhat latino, and with a shade of hypocrisy, it never ceased make Ginny feel uneasy. She had made a secret vow to herself; if it was her who had this godforsaken name, then she would totally stay in the safe of mountains and never come out, like ever again.  
　　

Several years ago, on an idly cheerful day, Ginny was too bored to keep a distance from her sister. So she walked up to her, and made a casual joke about her name.

"Each one of the family has a name that could be located in any random phone book. Only you had one straight pulled out from a dictionary, and how does that feel?" This was her thought back then.

"Ahum, your name is Aquamarine, how about I call you by 'Mary' from now on?"  
　　

The next thing she knew was: being stuffed into a bookcase was far from the definition of comort.  
　　

If it was a plain ordinary bookcase, Ginny would try to break the lock the second she was stuffed. But, this bookcase belonged to Aquamarine. And in that case, an indefinite numbers of cubic meter of space was invovled and, most probrably, an infinite amount of books she had read was stored here. Ginny had located a pile of books and just remained seated to make herself a little more comfy.  
　　  
　　

She swam in the sea of memories, trying to find something fun enough to pass the time with. Suddenly, a great deal of never-experienced-herself memories hopped up from the middle of nowhere. She sawherself standing in the Diagon Alley, giving a whole lecture of bullshit to this dude named 'Snape'; she sneaked a peek upon herself bowing to the Malfoys in the Hall of Windsor's; and the weirdest memories of all would be herself boiling a caldron of magic potions in the dungeon of nowhere. Of course, there were more fractured pieces of memories, scatted here and there; each filled up with praises from others and absolute incredibility.  
　　

It only took one second for Ginny to make the rightful judgement: these belonged to her sister, even though they obviously had gotten into her head without even asking for permission and consent first. These extravagant experience soon became Ginny's pass time in her very own black cell. She replayed them again and again, wishing that she could unveil her sister's secret by doing so. By the time she was released, she still had nothing close to a conclusion.  
　　

Ginny sat on the ground, and stood before her was a giggling Aquamarine with a sense of elation radiating to her surroundings. Ginny read her face carefully and found a written sentence: tell mum if you dare to try.

　　

I dare not, either way I was doomed. Ginny said inwardly to herself.  
　　

She stumped into the kitchen and successfully got herself a full course of dinner, with her mum's bickering served as side dish.  
　　

"I don't recall ever telling you to return home this late! Try come home later than six for a second time, and little miss, I have warned you, you will be grounded! Why couldn't you just be like your sister and grow up a bit?”  
　　

Be like my sister? By stuffing her own sibiling inside a bookcase?  
　　

Ginny didn't hold her grudge for long. So by the time they were bothin bed and ready to tug in, she was already able to chichat with her twin sister. They fell into a short period of silence from time to time. Gazing at her sister's serene face, Ginny couldn't help but wonder, how could she be so much nicer to that Snape dude, while was always ready to bite my head off?   
　　

And for the record, who was that Snape dude anyway?  
　　

So there came the question,"Who was that Snape dude? The one tutored you potion making and stuff? ya know, he could be dangerous and it was never wise to walk into stranger's home."

　　

This heartless question seemed to have turned on some switch insideAquamarine's head. She hopped off her bunker bed and pulled Ginny up close by the night gown, "How could you have known?”  
　　

I didn't know how would I know about this. Before Ginny could complain about this unfair treatment, a large amount of new memories began to crush in. Aquamarine's designer workshop Deep Blue, her private safe in Gringotts, the password for the safe, where she had put the keys……She was startled, and probably had her shit face on. She scared her sister off and was finally letted go.  
　　

Aquamarine relaxed after several breaths of time.

　　

“I don't care about your sneaky ways of knowing things and it wouldn't make any difference. But——”she laid down with an air of indifference“stay out of my business.”

　　

Ginny nodded obediently, and snuggled under her blanket.  
　　

She didn't care about Aqumarine's potential revenge in the near future. For now, the only rightful thing to do is to laugh--okay, maybe keep it down for the circumstance. Aquamarine might have known about each and every things in the whole world, but there is this one last secret, that belonged to Ginny.

And Ginny only.  
　　

I didn't give a freak about your business. Just do whateveryou want, but always keep it in mind that you should stay out of my way. 

Or else, more of your secret would be unveiled.


	4. Advice

For a long time, peace prevails. Or at least, it thrives between Ginny and her sister.

　　

They tended not to stick together like all the other sisters do. Aqaumarine invested herself in socializing and absorbing contents of books,while Ginny spent more of her time fooling around, climbing trees. The difference between schedules prevent them from clashing into each other and throwing a tantraum afterwards.  
　　

Aquamarine got her own room after she earned the first bucket of gold and won the negotiation against mum. Ever since Ginny's birth, this is the first time when she was truly happy for her twin sister's deed; she also got a place of her own as a side effect of Aquamarine's great success in wining a room of privacy.  
　　

Laying awake in her own bed, Ginny was washed over with happinessand bliss. But soon, insomnia took over the room. Staring at the ceiling in the dark, she figured that, maybe, just maybe, she had missed all the precedented nights with someone to talk with.  
　　

Do you think my feeling is messed up alongside with my brain again? She poked the wooden ceiling with a broom stick.  
　　

Yes. The answer is simple and sharp like always.  
　　

The burrow slowly emptied itself. Bill has been working for the Gringotts in Egypt; Charlie has gone to Romania. Others have school to attend, or more work to deal with. Each of them has a place other than home to go to.  
　　

Eventually, even her youngest brother, Ron, reached the age for school.  
　　

Ginny was thrilled on the day they saw Ron off. Her sister slept in latethat day and hadn't come along. They have met Harry Potter, "the boy who lived", at the train station; however, Ginny didn't know that back when she laid her eyes on him.

　　

Ginny told her sister about this little adventure once they got home. The latter one didn't show any sorts of interest in the topic.  
　　

“ It seemed like someone has got her own prince charming."She said this blatantly.  
　　

I did meet a prince charming, a savior with bad luck charm necklace dangling all over himself. Ginny successfully maintained her smile of pure giddiness and ignorance, while picturing a bright future in her mind:  finally, I knew some who had a worse life than my own. Probably, he could serve as my lucky charm for a while?  
　　

A clash of two prodigies! must be the greatest show ever--it had better wound them both to the point of collapse. Ginny secretly prayed to God, for that boy to be prepared, for the competition in the years to come.  
　　

Ron wrote to them later. And in the letter, he had said something about befriending with that Potter kid and being picked on by some Malfoy bastard. He also talked about the professor of potion making had held personal grudge towards Harry, always looking for quarrel ina straw. Ron referred to him as "old greasy bat".  
　　

Once Ginny finished reading the whole letter, she looked up and found a completely offended sister. She disappeared into the safety of her room as means for survival. Ginny laid on her bed, pondering about her behaviors, and didn't draw out a convicing conclusion for her sister's fuss. She went back to that letter, still not knowing why it would upset anyone. In brief, this was a vivid and brilliant piece; one could see that the author had put his true feeling in it. Had it not been a few sentences of complaint on professors, schoolmates and the existing education system, it could even go into an A-Level textbook, probably serving as an sample essay, or something.  
　　

Ginny always thought her sister had a quick temper, which means her anger would wade out as the same pace it emerges. But ever since that day, once they brought up Ron, her face would twist with anger and disdain. Pa and ma probably hadn't noticed it, but Ginny had thatweird feeling in her gut: Ron is probably going to be skinned in the forseeable future.   
　　

Summer vacation strode with Ron and had arrived at Burrow. Ginny rushed to grab Ron's hand at the first sight of him.  
　　

“ya know. No matter what happened, I would always support you, mentally. Be brave, stay strong, and it may be over soon.”upon a few thoughts, she added,“Small word of advice: be safe.”  
　　

“Your mind really was messed up.”  
　　

Ron had shrugged it off as if it were nothing that day. And not a few days had passed when he realized that it was words of wisdom. Staircases, kitchen knives and even street dogs from nearby neighborhoodhad all plotted against him. If his pain and suffering could add up, he would spent the rest of his vacation in St. Mungot's. And as if things hadn't been bad already, Aquamarine offered to supervise his essaywriting.   
　　

With a thing layer of parchment paper in hand, she walked up to hermum,“How could my brother be so hopeless to the extent that he would have patches of rags as finished assignments? It was a disgrace.”  
　　

Aquamarine babbled more about Ron's unbearable crime, and pulled three books directly out of her terrifying bookcase. She made sure Ron read every line of them and spent another afternoon tutoring him on essay writing.  
　　

Mom, was so delighted that she wanted her to supervise Ron's study even during school years. Ron, well, he could only moan in the pit of self-hatred.  
　　

Some night in July, Ron got his left hand squeezed swollen by the vehicle door during a regular maintainence of dad's car. He pulled back his swollen fingers and whispered to Ginny, who was on the side ofthe garage,  
　　

“Have you cursed me or not? After that handshake with you, I had been nothing but miserable.”  
　　

Ginny felt wronged and mistreated. She muttered back,“You really thought I was capable of doing **this** to you?Fine, another word of advice: stay alive, stay away from **you-know-who.** ”  
　　

“Who?”Ron was louder than ever.  
　　

Who else can it be? Ginny saw Aquamarine coming, so she kept her mouth shut and sneaked away with buckets in hand, and an ignorant Ron still asking:  
　　“Stay away from who?”


	5. Clutch

Recently, dad had been caught up in muggle's moving vehicles. This,however unluckily, had also provided Aquamarine with a proper stage to show off. After igniting the dying two horsepower motor with casual ease, she had, once again, surprised the whole family. Percey even went to the length of holding her in both arms, and openly stated his concerns, saying“Squib or wizard; it doesn't change the fact you're treasured.”  
　　

Ginny wasn't **that** worried about her sister's magic capability. For now, she was more puzzled than concerned. What exactly is this kiwi fruit's intention? Does it enjoy helping their father out? Or is it the other way around?   
　　

Each time dad called out for Aquamarine's assistence, she would casta show of impatience and languor. Every now and then, she will rushto fix the malfunctioning part before dad could figure it out on his own with help of the manual.  
　　

It's weekend again. And dad is in his regular routine: taking the motor apart, putting the pieces back together before tearing it up one more time. And once in his personal zone, he would excitedly ask Ginny to fetch her sister and try to find out why the motor was making that funny noise.  
　　

Ginny entered the living room and found an Aquamarine who was currently slouching on the tea table, refusing to move.  
　　

“Why would dad be such a bore?Couldn't he just let me rest for another two seconds?”Blinking her eyes, Aquamarine continued to complain in baby voice,“Don't blame this on me. And, yes , I might be a bit lazy from time to time. But if you're the one tangled in dad's crazy muggle stuff, you would be annoyed, too!”  
　　

“Ya sure ya don't want to check things out?”Ginny couldn't take it anymore.  
　　

Dad still hadn't ceased his shouting, so Aquamarine just stuffed a pair of plugs into her ear and pretended to be dumb.  
　　

“I wish I could just turn a deaf ear to this and ignore all the fuss.”Aquamarine grumbled half-heartedly.  
　　

“Then I'll go. I think I had this problem figured out already.”  
　　

Hearing this, her languid sister finally gave Ginny the full attention and sat up straight,“You do? Tell me about it.”  
　　

“The rubber pad of the priming pump assembly in the clutch must be broken. Just try changing the assembly, and it might be functioning again.”Ginny's mind was still spinning around and this was the closest thing she could gather up as professional advice, with that limited knowledge scrapped down directly from a poorly-written manual book.  
　　

“Ginny,”Aquamarine suddenly stood up,“Maybe I should go check on them. After all, our dad really does care about that car.”  
　　

Walking past Ginny, Aquamarine patted her sister's shoulder and gave her one of those dazzling smiles, something brighter than the summer sun.  
　　

“Would you be so kind to get us some lemonade?”  
　　

Ginny widened her eyes. For the first time, she was astounded by her sister, not for Aquamarine's sudden need of the lemonade, but for the hand she slapped on Ginny's shoulder, which indicates her total ignorance to the field of automobile.  
　　

In the world of omnious Aquamarine, there wasn't a single place for the existence of clutch. How did she manage to sort out all those problems, without any knowledge concerning car repairing?  
　　

Ginny dashed out to fetch the said fruite juice, wishing to catch a glimpse of the scene. The scene of a green hand handling a malfunctioning car.  
　　

Sadly, she was late for the show. For the time being, dad seemed to behaving a bonding moment with her little sister.  
　　

“Simple as a click on the switch--and, there we go!”  
　　

“Yep, the clutch is the key.”  
　　

With a knowing smirk, they gladly accepted the lemonade Ginny brought there.  
　　

Several days had passed when Ginny finally came to realize one important thing. As the townfolks from the repair workshop may put it: their automatic transmission cars don't have a clutch. 


	6. Guest

“Ginny, has dad ever told you about how to drive?"Fred asked her one day.　　

“Each time when we saw dad repairing a car, you were always there,watching."George added.  
　　“Hum…I might know a wheel or two about driving.”  
　　“Okay, then we are good to go.”  
　　“You know two wheels about it. Fred and I both know a wheel about driving, and it's got to be enough.”  
　　“Enough for what?”  
　　“Come and see for yourself.”  
　　

That day, Ginny, Ron, and the twins spent the whole afternoon squeezed into the tiny cab, trying to solve the puzzle of driving. It wasn't till dinner did they finally put together a clear conclusion.

 

“Why havn't you gone to Aquamarine for help? She literally knew everything."Putting her hands under the running water, Ginny couldn't hold back the question anymore.  
　　

“Why bother asking her, when asking you could solve the problem?”said George.  
　　

“The thing is, you wouldn't poke your nose into our stuff and ask questions.", and there went Fred.  
　　

Why would you need to learn driving in the first place?——Ginny swallowed back her second question and decided to seal the issue.

 

That night when passing the corridor, Ginny saw her dad's recently finished flying car sneaked out the garage and drove away.  
　　

Someone behind her back cracked the silence and crept Ginny to thedegree of almost jumping onto the wall shelf.  
　　

“It must be the twin and Ron, cuz Percy would never get involved insuch a stupid thing. Really? Sneaking out in the middle of night, did they have any idea what would mom think?”Aquamarine shook herhead disapprovingly and walked into her room, "I am glad you didn'tfollow them along and did something childishly stupid.”  
　　

Before closing her door, she turned back and gave Ginny that dazzling smile again. Haunted by the image of that smile, Ginny lost sleep that night.  
　　

When she finally managed to fall asleep, it was almost dawn.  
　　

Bim, bam, ding-dong-crush……  
　　

Ginny was woken by the noises from downstairs. Rubbing her eyes on the way to kitchen, she hoped to get some water first. Once the door was cracked open, she remain rooted in her place, with surprise washing over her. She lit up at once and rushed to her sister's room, yelling this great news along the way.  
　　

“What's the matter?"Aquamarine grumbled.  
　　

“We have a guest and he is HERE!”  
　　

“Who?”Aquamarine mumbled.  
　　

“Har……Harry Potter!" Ginny yelled out his name with all her might.

“Are you done yet?”Aquamarine was suddenly upset“ Don't you know that I tend to sleep in? You pick a wrong time to do your fangirl stuff!”  
　　

Dodging the pillow thrown her way, Ginny rushed out of the room. Nothing could ruin her good mood today.  
　　

Growl as you may; I am here to inform you that the day has come! The other hero has arrived on the battle field and you are going down!  
　　

Ginny firmly believed in a theory: some extraordinary people couldn'tbear the existence of their counter parts. And Aquamarine seemed tofit rightly into this category.  
　　

Naively, she thought her suffering was finally over and she could watch the sparring contest from a first class seat.   
　　

As soon as dad stepped onto the 'welcome' mat in noon, mom had brought it on, starting the first wave of attack on him. For the matter of the twin stealing the car.   
　　

“Arthur Weasley, I bet you have fondled around with words when you wrote the regulations!”she began to yell,“Ship off all your muggle garbage from the cabin, NOW! You know what? Harry arrived at our place this morning by traveling in that flying piece of junk!”  
　　

“Harry?Who's Harry? Merlin's stinky underpants! He is the, Harry Potter? It's a pleasure to meet you, and Ron has already told us a lot about——”  
　　

“Last night, your very own son……”And there went the yelling part again.  
　　

Through the never-ending rounds of shouting, Ginny had noticed something peculiar. Just now, a tide of long-gone dizziness had appeared again. Wave by wave, that dreamy floating expression crawled onto everyone's face, once again.  
　　

“Mom, you are too loud for your own good."A languid voice cut in. Aquamarine walked down the staircases.  
　　

Mom had zipped it at once.  
　　

“Darling, are you hungry?”Mom's voice suddenly became tender as silk.  
　　

“A little. I stayed up too late last night.”Aquamarine drifted to the breakfast table, and gave mom a morning kiss.  
　　

“Aqua, I didn't get a kiss in days!”The guest widened his eyes uponseeing Mr. Weasley's childish behavior.  
　

Aquamarine waddled to the seat between George and Fred.“Take that as a punishment then.”  
　　

Darn it. Ginny facepalmed. Her zone has grown more effective and aggressive.  
　　

Aquamarine didn't just stop there,“Dad, get a grip of yourself. We have guest present.”  
　　

Mr. Weasley suddenly remembered all the fuss about Harry and introduced his precious little daughter to him at once.  
　　

“Ah, sorry about that, Harry. This is my youngest daughter, Aquamarine. She was the gem and star of House Weasley.”  
　　

“That's true, Harry.”Fred nodded.  
　　

“Princess Weasley.”In his mindless state, George placed his hands on Aquamarine's shoulder.  
　　

Seeing the smile Aquamarine had casted upon Harry, Ginny knew she was wrong about him and her vengeance plan has pathetically failed. That smile contained Aquamarine's usual contempt and had a slight shade of pity.   
　　

“Ron, just take him to your room already.”Ginny was alreadying running for her life.

　　

“Let's go upstairs.”  
　　

They walked to the staircase.  
　　

“Ron, have you finished your homework?”Harry just had to poke atthe sleeping dragon. in the eye.“I have no idea what to write in my potion essay. I guess I had to beg for Snape's mercy when the school year started……”  
　　

Disgusted, Aquamarine scowled, suddenly cutting into the conversation,“Personally, I didn't think talking behind a professor's back is an honorable thing to do. ”  
　　

Something inside Ginny had collapsed into pieces. For the first time, she had learned about the cost of failing to grab the chance for fleeing.  
　　

Aquamarine hasn't finished her lecture yet.  
　　

“If your assignment was so poorly written as Ron's were, then I won't doubt why you were hated by a professor. No professor would favor someone who didn't take his work seriously. You came to school to learn, not to annoy your professor.”  
　　

Finishing her one-sided argument, Aquamarine went back to eating her lunch, ignoring the people around her.  
　　

Ginny considered Harry's word to be quite normal, or common at least. But dad and mom seemed to be siding with her sister for the time being.“Harry, Aqua was right.”Mrs. Weasley had put down her frying pan.  
　　

“And Ron's potion essay did suck. Aqua has spent a whole afternoon helping out.”Mr. Weasley nodded along,“You absorb knowledgeand learn to defend yourself at school. Annoying your professor wouldn't do your any good.”  
　　

“But, Snape was always picking on Harry.”Ron protested.  
　　

Aquamarine had finished her last sausage, and once the fork was putdown, she smiled.  
　　

Air-raid alert was tearing Ginny's brain apart. Instinctly, she knew something had jumped on her sister's nerve. Just, what kind of smile is this? Quickly, she glanced around and located the same kind of smile on her parents and sibilings' faces. The smile might scare off Satan with that touch of evilness.  
　　

Ginny cried out,"I wanted to sleep in for a while！”She ran out of the scene as fast as possible, throwing a storm of bloodshed and hatred back behind.


	7. Wand

Burrow was a sad excuse for an acoustic shielding shelter. And her sister did have a loud voice. Pressing her head deep down into the pillow, Ginny still hadn't missed a word from her sister's unforgettable speech.  
　　

With anger serving as the appetizer, disdain soon followed up as the main course--AND there went the last three suggestions, motto is the best drink to wash down a whole set of speech. Ginny couldn't be more familiar with this scorning strategy. Aquamarine's voice could weave funny ideas into common folk's head; if she said that the earth would shape-shift from a cube to a quadrihedron and will woof aloud from time to time, everyone would still have bought that.  
　　

It all stopped after half an hour. Ginny saw her brother's face when he was passying by her room, Ron looked like some miserable dude who had just lost their car and house in a tornado.  
　　

“Is he alright?" Ginny asked cautiously.  
　　

“I don't think so. He just sat there, and said nothing after...what had happened.”  
　　

Ginny's heart had sank into the pit of her stomach, and she sighed. Well, there went down the "blackhorse".  
　　

Surprisingly, she found that she was wrong again an hour later.  
　　

It was two in the afternoon. Ginny had just knocked Ron's door open, and she was looking for something fun to kill the time with.  
　　

Sitting aside, flipping through the pages of out-of-date comic magazines while casaully peeking at the chessboard set between the two boys, Ginny felt something was off. She glanced around and finally located the source of peculiarity: it's Harry. He shouldn't be this happy after that "incident".  
　　

He must be the happiest person Ginny has ever seen. For someone who just had the entire family insulted in his face an hour ago, he seemed quite detached. In fact, his rosy-pink cheeks, vivid facial expressions and bright laughter had told a totally different story.  
　　

When Ron was gone fetching some cookies, Ginny asked Harry about that incident. With all due respect, of course.  
　　

“You sure you're okay?Don't let my sister get to you. That's just who she is.”  
　　

“Your sister?”  
　　

“Yep, the one walked down the stairs in pajamas. You know, the girlwho had just given you a series of lectures. We look quite alike, if you came to think about it. ”  
　　

“That aqua girl? We didn't talk much though.”  
　　

Harry gazed at Ginny as if she was the crazy one. Ginny sweated a bit.  
　　

“You don't remember?anything?”

 

“Remember what?”

 

“Those weird things happened after your arrival.”  
　　

“I have had the best breakfast in my life, and we hanged out together till now. Did that count as 'weird'?”  
　　

“Nope……”  
　　

Is he just playing dumb to trick me? Ginny felt kind of lost.  
　　

If he is pretending all this time, then he would definitely get an oscarin the forseeable future.  
　　

But, he didn't seem like a pretender.  
　　

Ginny zipped up the remaining questions, and pretended along as if nothing has changed in her life.  
　　

Life was a pool of dead water. Mum would always refill Harry's dish several times despite his protest. After receiving his Prefect badge, Percy would polish it each and everyday before putting it on. Even the ghoul lived upstairs were somehow more active than usual. Aquamarine had complained, ever since Harry arrived here, the whole family had been acting strangely. Ginny guessed that she would say so, because she was not in the spot light anymore. For example, dad didn't drag her along to mess around with the muggle stuff like he used to do. Harry, who had lived along side with muggle since birth, grabbed his attention much more easily. And naturally, the twins and Ron would love to hang out with Harry.  
　　

Had it not been the carrier owl and the adimission notification, Ginny wouldn't have noticed she was eleven now.

 

"Wake me up, when September ends~"  
　　

Okie dokie, I was born a Leo, thought Ginny. If I survived my own birthday, then I could go to school and kept the Kiwi as far from myself as possible.  
　　

Happiness did squeeze further concerns into the dark corner of Ginny's mind. But still, Ginny recalled that she hadn't bought the stuff for school term yet.  
　　

With all her social networking skills, Aquamarine had already got everything. Let's say she was armed to her manicures for the least.  
　　

We'll focus on her wand for a while. The night she came back from Diagon Alley, that silverish wand had shone and lit up the whole hill which Burrow was dwelling on.  
　　

The wand was said to be made by the elves. It was thirteen inches in length, carved from wind-feather wood of the Forest Gold. Its handle used the Spirits of Ice as the main material, and had emerald embedded within, serving as a powerful chant. Fire crystal crawled on the edge of the wand. Unicorn, rosefinch, seiryu, hyakko, and shanwoo have gave her blessings through their blood. The wand is flexible and bendable. Legend has it that, she who rules the wand, rules the world.  
　　

The moment Aquamarine had laid her finger upon the wand, it had shoot out a bright ray of light, illuminating half the Diagon Alley. Nine silverish animals came out from the tip, and circled Ollivander's store for a long period of time before disappearing. Aquamarine was reluctant to take that wand at first, grumbling something like "too showy". But Mr. Ollivander had insisted doing so, because "if you don't take him, then all the wands around would wreak a rebellion." So be it, said Aquamarine.  
　　

Aquamarine's introduction to the legend of her wand was filled up with fancy words and expressions. Ginny zoned out halfway-through. In retrospect, she thought about the introduction she would made, if she would own this wand: 

This is an ass-kicking wand!  
　　

On the morning of family shoping day, Ginny felt dizzy once she was out of bed. When she came down the staircasesa and went into the living room, she found that the air was sweetened up to the degree ofnauseating. She clenched her teeth and forced herself down by the table to eat.  
　　

The twins were disscusing about this year's consumption index.  
　　

“It's a night mare! How did mum and dad even scrap up enough money for our tuition fee?……Six sets of Lockheart！Not to mention the robes, wands and other stuff Aquamarine and Ginny was gonna need……”  
　　

“A-hum! Havn't I mentioned before that all my stuff had been bought and taken care with?”Aquamarine blurted out.  
　　

"All of them?”George looked at Aquamarine as if she had suddenly grown an extra head,“I thought you only got your wand for free.”  
　　

“You saved us thirty Gallons for the least.”Fred eyed his sister warily.

 

Aquamarine turned to her mother instead,“Mother, I have a few designer drafts to hand over. It could probably bring us a hundred extra income. I would go to the clothing store first and catch up with you later at Flourish and Blotts.”  
　　

“Do as you wish, darling.”nodded Mrs. Weasley.

 

“Aqua, you have destroyed daddy's one last piece of self-confidence.”Mr. Weasley eyed her grievously.  
　　

“Doesn't matter. We are a family!”Aquamarine hugged her father'sneck with a smile on her face and kissed his cheek.  
　　

"One more time." Mr. Weasley pointed at his stubby cheek again.  
　　

Aquamarine giggled and obeyed. Her father's mood suddenly lightened up.  
　　

She walked up to her elder sister.  
　　

“Ginny, I decided to buy you a tool-set for potions. And Sirel from Windsor's has offered to give you new uniforms.”  
　　

Ginny smiled, while expressing her gratitudes towards some gift she didn't really want.  
　　

“Come on! We are sisters!”Aquamarine showed her generousity.  
　　

I must have commited treason and murder in my past life. Ginny thought inwardly. Now I am in a living hell.


	8. Luna

The trip to Diagon Alley was a disaster. Harry had walked into the wrong fireplace, the whole family had bumped into the Malfoys at book store, and dad had initiated a fight against them.  
　　

Mom was so fumed that she scolded father all the way back home. On the other hand, Ginny took pride in for her father's brave deed. "Aneye for an eye", the folks always say.  
　　

When they was finally separated, even dad's clipped lips seemed so awesome and cool. There was a curious sense of beauty in the air when Malfoy Senior was hit in the eye by Encyclopedia of Toadstools. At that moment, he still had Ginny's second-hand textbook for transfiguration. Tossing the pile of papers into her arms, Malfoy senior stabbed her with his disdainful attitude.  
　　

“Take that, little girl--and be careful, this could have been the most dear thing your dad would bought you.”  
　　

Excuse me, sir, you have just made a terrible mistake. The 'dearest' thing dad ever gave me was my sister and I would totally hand her to you given the right chance.--thought Ginny.  
　　

Pushing Harry out of the way, still exasperated, Mr. Malfoy rushed out of the book store. And poor old dad was left behind to deal with mom.

　　

Believing today is not the day for traveling, Ginny asked her mom forsome money and decided to head to the wand shop herself before returning to the bar for them.。  
　　

She saw Aquamarine standing on the doorsteps of the book store.  
　　

“You have seen it all?”Ginny wondered why she could remain the apathy bystander she always is.  
　　

“So what? Were you expecting me to assist dad in the fight?”  
　　

“It was a good show for you, then.”  
　　

“I thought you were getting your wand.”Brushing her aside, Aquamarine has walked into the place.“I will help dad to get out of this mess.”

　　

Noticing the sparks in Aquamarine's eyes, Ginny dashed out to Ollivander's.  
　　

From the hand that had shoved her away, she had found a slight shade of maiden complex. Seemingly, Aquamarine was starting to have a crush on someone, or at least, she began to take interests in somebody. It was all too terrifying and Ginny had sworn to forget this as soon as possible.  
　　

Ollivander's was a place of serenity. Time seemed to stop for the ray of sunshine going through the tawny glass. And that good old fellow standing behind the counter, will help you forget all the despair withjust one look behind his glasses.  
　　

“I've never seen someone this not-picky like you.”  
　　

Each wand Ginny had tried was swinging from suitable to "not-so-suitable-but-I-didn't-mind-either". They would obey her, halfheartedly, as if they didn't care who would be the one she took home.  
　　

“I'll just pick one in random, then.”  
　　

“No, Ollivander's doesn't do business in a rush! You just wait up.”The old fellow's determination has startled Ginny a bit. After saying this, he had gone down into the basement.  
　　

Is he getting me another elf-made awesome wand?  
　　

Reaching for the wands on the shelf, Ginny almost jumped upon hearing a hazy voice.  
　　

“You have a high synchronous rate.”  
　　

Ginny saw a pale girl behind her; they are about the same age, and she had moonlight for hair, washed white for dress. The girl was so pale that Ginny could hardly tell her from the wall behind. She was alsowearing a pair of carrots as earrings; her eyes were big and round, bubbling up like a goldfish. She showed up with an expression of someone asleep and spoke up with a voice of insomnia.

　　

“What's a synchronous rate?”  
　　

“it means you could synchronize well with artificial intelligence. And in our world, it means you could socialize with wands just fine.”  
　　

Ginny didn't get it.  
　　

"I have been watching you and I noticed your cloud of bad luck. Look at these darkened gases.”She waved her hands above Ginny's head.“What a mass.”  
　　

Ginny looked up and saw nothing.  
　　

“Oh……My name is Ginny Weasley, and what's your name?”  
　　

“Luna, Luna Lovegood.”  
　　

“It was a pleasure to meet you.”  
　　

“You sure would be glad to know her,”Mr. Ollivander cut in before Lunacould say anything.“You are meant for each other...since, well, neither of you is the picky type.”He took out another wand.  
　　

That's a black wand, of cylinder shape, straight as a stick.  
　　

“You share the same kind of simplicity.”  
　　

I would take that as a compliment. Ginny muttered in heart.  
　　

“This wand has been here for years, because no one like her 'whatever, I don't care' attitude. Since it doesn't have a favourite type of owner, basically, everyone could use her. In your kids' words, she doesn't have... 'perks and personality'.”The old man handed the wand over to Ginny.“I personally thought you would make a great team.”  
　　

“I think she likes you.”Luna stroked Ginny's wand fondly,“Are you feeling better now?”  
　　

“I presume?”said Ginny.  
　　

I guess I am just not meant to use a superior wand. Ginny sighed anddecided to give in.  
　　

“Do you happen to have any wand of the superior kind? May I havea look at least?”Ginny gave her dying kicks.  
　　

“Each wand is a kind of their own. Which kind do you want to see?”  
　　

“I want to see the kind made by elves.”  
　　

Mr. Ollivander laughed as if he had just heard the best crack-joke in the world. He still couldn't quite catch his breath after a long intervalof giggling, smirking and gasping.  
　　

“My child, elves don't use wands. They won't even touch it.”

　　

“Maybe they build wands for money?”

　　

The last trace of smile had vanished from Mr. Ollivander's face.  
　　

“They make neither money or wands; wands-making is a human thing, which was considered filthy among their race. No elf would ever want to be a free riding merchant, not by wand making, not in a million years.”  
　　

"Not long ago, you just gave out one for free.”  
　　

“Kiddo, Elves don't make wands for money, but poor old Ollivander need to make ends meet.”  
　　

Ginny felt a little awkward, so she paid the bill and took the wand. When Ginny was passing by, Luna smiled and said.  
　　

“You are hilarious.”  
　　

“Thank you.”It was obvious that Luna had meant it as a compliment.  
　　

As soon as Ginny had shut the door, she heard Luna saying something to Mr. Ollivander,  
　　

“Would you be so kind to give me your least straight wand?”


	9. Mary Sue

On the night of August thirty-first, Ginny had the birthday party all toherself, because Aquamarine had headed out earlier that day. She came home pretty late. Noticing her sister's a good mood, Ginny sneaked into her room.  
　　

“I'll leave your present on the table.”Ginny took out a some package in green wrappings.  
　　

“Thanks.”Aquamarine was still changing her outfit. She motioned to Ginny,“Have a seat.”  
　　

Ginny caught a glimpse of her exquisite necklace, an azure crystal dangling on a shiny chain of silver.  
　　

“They bought you this?”  
　　

“Who?”  
　　

“Your friends, those who had given you this fancy necklace.”  
　　

Aquamarine's smile widened, her cheeks suddenly glowing rosy pink.  
　　

“Uncle Seve had bought me this.”She laid an eye on Ginny.“I will give one to you on your birthday.”  
　　

“We share the same date for birthday.”  
　　

Seeing her sister's face heated up into beet red, Ginny felt somethingclose to happiness as part of the little revenge.  
　　

“It's okay if you have forgot about it.”  
　　

“Who told you that? Take a look at what I got you here!”Puffing her cheek, Aquamarine fiddled through her stuff and grabbed out a box.“I have prepared something for you too.”  
　　

It's not the gift that I was complaining about. Ginny retorted inwardly. Still, she had accepted the box and yelled "this is fantastic" all the way to her room.  
　　

Inside the box laid a pair of beautiful dancing shoes, garish to the degree of eyes-gogling, and one could tell its dragon skin texture at first sight. Ginny didn't even bother to check the price tag. A package ofcolour pencil in exchange for a pair of dragon skin dancing shoes……Creepy. I could give my old ones to Ruffles now.  
　　

Ginny laid down the shoes and started to poke at the ceiling with a broomstick.  
　　

Ghoulie, today is my birthday.  
　　

I know, but I don't have a present for you.  
　　

At least, you could say "Happy birthday"?  
　　

You didn't seem quite happy.  
　　

Ghoulie, I would be leaving in a few days.  
　　

I know you would be leaving for school.  
　　

Once I was gone, you would have no one to talk to.  
　　

I would be just fine. I could always dig holes through the floor.  
　　

…………………………  
　　

Ginny, happy birthday.  
　　

Why bother say that to me now?  
　　

I realized that there is something I could give you.  
　　

What is it?  
　　

A word of Advice.  
　　

Spit it then.  
　　

Stay alert and keep an eye on……  
　　

Crash-Bump-Thump——  
　　

A deafening noise broke out, and no matter how many times Ginny had poked at the ceiling afterwards, there was no reply, not even a single knock.  
　　

It wasn't untill next day did she finally find out what had happened. Druming all kinds of things at night, the ghoul in the attic had finallydrawn out Aquamarine's anger. She leashed out all her fume on him.Once she came down from the attic, she seemed quite satisfied. But ever since that day, ghoulie hadn't knocked a thing, not even at Ginny.  
　　

Concerns drew Ginny up to the attic. And that ghoul who used to be ghoulie retreated into a trunk once saw Ginny approaching. He shivered and trembled, without saying anything. The whole family was curious about what exactly Aquamarine had done, scaring him into such a state.   
　　

There was only a day left before Ginny would go to Hogwarts. She came upstairs and knocked on the door to the attic.  
　　

Ghoulie, I have stored some old books up here; if you are bored someday, make sure to check them out.  
　　

……Silence seemed to be taking permanent residence in the attic.  
　　

Ghoulie, what happened? Are you alright? I am leaving tomorrow, please talk to me now! I am worried about you.  
　　

No words came out. Just when Ginny was deciding to give up, there went a few faint knocks on the door.  
　　

Stay alert and keep an eye on the Mary Sue……  
　　

Mary sue? Who the hell is Mary Sue?  
　　

The door cracked and silence took hold of the whole place.


	10. Registration Day

Ginny's registration day had finally come and the whole family had gone to Platform nine and three quarters.  
　　

The Hogwarts Express slowly pulled into the train station.  
　　

Strangely, Harry and Ron still hadn't showed up.  
　　

Ginny couldn't care less; she became dizzy the moment she set foot onto the train. Seeing that enchanted expression all people abroad the train had shared, Ginny knew at once: her sister's force field had turned on full power again.  
　　

My sweet little sister, it's only the first second of our long trip and you are already plotting to make yourself popular. How strategic!  
　　

Dragging her huge trunk, Ginny fled to the end of the train and sat outside the carriage, on a platform instead.  
　　

This would be your journey, and your journey alone. Ginny Weasley, you will be all by yourself.  
　　

After she finished saying those sentences in heart, the door behind her bursted open. A leisurely slow voice started out,"And you won't get disturbed here……Hi, Ginny. What a coincidence.”  
　　

A pale girl and a round-face boy walked up to her.  
　　

“And you are——”Ginny thought back to the day at Ollivander's.  
　　

“Luna, Luna Lovegood. I remember you, yet you couldn't even recall my name.……I am not angry, not at all.”  
　　

Really?That's great! thought Ginny.  
　　

“How did you guys end up being stuck here with me?”  
　　

“Something about the atmosphere in there felt off…There must be some creature circling me, wrackspurts, most probably. And then, I noticed Neville wasn't feeling well either; that become the last piece of the puzzle, it must have been wrackspurts……So I dragged him out here, to get some fresh air…Legend has it that wind in the end of summer day could scare off wrackspurts. Is that right, Neville?”  
　　

“I am not so sure about that; maybe you are right……”Neville couldn't be more hesitant.  
　　

“What about you? Why weren't you enjoying the comfort of carriage? I just saw someone like you overthere; are you twins? Twins should stay together as often as possible. It is said to be good for the growth of magic compacity.”  
　　

You must have heard otherwise; it would only be good for the growth of endurance and patience. After thinking it through, Ginny told Luna,“I was hiding from wrackspurts as well.”  
　　

Luna was somehow convinced by the previous conversation; she believed that Ginny and Neville could be her bosom friend after that short exchange of words. Together, they went on a spiritual journey of exploration. From the way her talk, one can notice that Luna has a broad horizon of knowledge. Fortunately, as someone known for her gibberjabbing skills, Ginny could easily follow up with her. And, there would always be Neville, the loyaful audience. Throught this experience, one can learn that the old saying was always true in itself: two good friends can halve the journey.  
　　

Just as the sky was beginning to get dark, a booming voice started toresonate inside the carriages：“We'll arrive at Hogwarts in five minutes. Please make sure your luggage was stored in carriage. Soon, theywill be shipped to your dorms.”  
　　

Luna turned her head to talk to Ginny while throwing her baggy robes on,  
　　

“See you soon, Ginny. And please do tell your sister; she was surrounded by wrackspurts.”  
　　

“I will.”  
　　

After the door was opened, a wave of black robes rushed out.  
　　

The first-year students were all too thrilled to wait in line, while others simply wandered about in the corridor. Somewhere not far behind, a giant-like man was waving a lantern at the first-year students. Ginny had recognized him: she had seen him at the book store that day; he was the Hagrid Ron always talked about.  
　　

Ginny still hadn't seen Ron and Harry; this was starting to worry her alittle.  
　　

In the darkening twilight, Hagrid led all the first-year to the wharf.  
　　

“Hey! Follow up, ya younglings!”yelled Hagrid,“A boat could only contain four of you!”  
　　

Canoes gliding across the lake's surface, while leaving circles of ripples behind, serenity was the only thing truly left behind.  
　　

Upon approaching the cliffs, all the first-year lowered their head in unity. Canoes transported them through the cliffs to the hidden entrance. Under the guidance of Hagrid, students treaded along the paths paved with gravel, strode through the tunnel under a rock, and finally reached a moist meadow covered in the shadow of the castle. Aftera final climbing of the stone stairs, they gathered before a gigantic oak gate.  
　　

The gate opened, and behind it stood a severe-looking witch. With her hair tightly braided, lips closed shut, the tall woman was wearing black high collar sweater and an emerald robe.  
　　

“Professor McGonagall, these are the new students.”Hagrid nodded to her.  
　　

All first-year had been led up stage, lined up and was shown a four-legged stool with a ragged hat on it.  
　　

The hat twitched, and a crack, like a man's mouth, opened up on the edge of it, and then the hat began to sing.……  
　　

Professor McGonagall forwarded with a long scroll of parchment papper in hand.  
　　

“Students called upon, please be seated on this stool. And the sorting hat would tell us to where you belong.”  
　　

And there started the sorting procedure.  
　　

A moment Ginny had waited for eleven years.  
　　

Farewell, my dear sister. I will raise hell to force the sorting hat into granting my wish！  
　　

She was too excited to care about where others went.  
　　

And finally——  
　　

“Ginny Weasley.”  
　　

Ginny could feel the floor trembling under her feet.  
　　

“Don't be this nervous.”Aquamarine squeezed Ginny's hand gentlyand whispered.  
　　

I am not nervous; I am just happy.  
　　

She put on the hat.  
　　

“It seems like you……”  
　　

“Don't say anything yet! Please listen to me for now!”Ginny cut him out,“I don't care which house I would go into, but there was one teeny-weenie wish you must grant me. The next person you are about to sort, please make sure her would stay in a different house. I have already endured her for eleven years and what I need was only a fewmonths of happiness. Please grant my wish and my life is at your mercy! Don't make me beg you!”  
　　

“Gryffindor.”announced the hat.  
　　

Ginny jumped down from the stool with a jig-jag tune on mind and the whole Gryffindor longtable had shouted to congratulate her.  
　　

“Aquamarine Weasley.”  
　　

Aquamarine pondered a bit, walked up there, stared at the sorting hat for another two seconds, and cast two "Scourgify" on both the stool and the hat before finally putting it on and being seated on the stool.  
　　

“Forgive me for my mysophobia.”sweetly, she said.  
　　

These sweetness almost had Ginny fainted by her house's long table due to disgust.  
　　

Aquamarine spent a long time on that stool, with a creepy smirk dangling on her lips. Few moments later, a loud voice cracked,“Slytherin.”  
　　

The all-Gryffindor Weasley had bred a daughter of Slytherin. Everyone had paused in their place, stunned; all except Ginny, who was currently praying for the sorting hat, wishing it to have a long and satisfying life. He truly is an honorable and caring hat.  
　　

Hopping down from the high stool, Aquamarine gracefully turned tothe direction of Slytherin's longtable to sit with the young Malfoy.  
　　

The hall was filled up with buzzing whispers; everyone seemed to be discussing why a Weasley would end up in Slytherin. Aftering zoningout for a moment, Professor McGonagall went back to her sorting procedure.  
　　

All of this buzz was none of Ginny's concerns. Just as the old saying goes, with a contented stomach, a Sicilian could forgive anything. Though not a Sicilian by birth, Ginny always thought herself as a joyful Sicilian by belief. My days had finally come, thought Ginny. Away from the Kiwi and close to the cuisine.  
　　

Ginny was determined to fight a battle against the food on set. Suddenly, she noticed something in her split vision: the small door to the hall had opened and someone she had only seen in Aquamarine's memory walked through it. Upon his passing Slytherin's long table, Aquamarine stood up and smiled at him. Under the forceful ray of light that was her smile, that person put on a mask of fake smile, as if some sorts of string were pulling his lips. He didn't hang there for long before he walked to Professor McGonagall and whispered something to her, resulting in her standing up and following him out the hall.  
　　

Weird……The moment Ginny noticed her own curiosity, she had immediately stuffed in a mouthful of mashed potato.  
　　

Don't even think about it! You don't have to get tangled up in the drama that is her life! Isn't this the thing you have been dreaming for years?  
　　

Taking another bite from the turkey leg, Ginny reminded herself: there were two roads in the forest; she had already taken one, and you should take the other while sticking to it and never look back. After all, you can't undo what has been done and the paths could be chosen only once.


	11. Colin

If you add up all the owls in the household of Weasley, the only answer you will get is one.  
　　  
So Ginny was used to sitting around her brothers, in case mom sent packages of snacks through owls.  
　　  
Today was not her lucky day. As for the timing, the Howler had been opened just in time; as for the position, Ginny had been a little bit too close to the Howler; as for the company, well, Ron dodged so quick that Ginny didn't even get a moment to react. Perfect timing, close position and worst company of all times had brought Ginny under canon fires of the Howler.  
　　  
“……I wouldn't be surprised if they kicked you out of school for stealing that car.”  
　　  
“……Last night I received a letter from Dumbledore, and I was worried that your father would die of shame and guilt. We never taught you to do this. You and Harry could get killed!.……”  
　　  
“……It's a disgrace to the family; your father is currently suspended from work, in his own unit and it's all your fault.……If you mistepped one more time, we would take your home in no time.”  
　　  
Ginny was spitted drenched wet by that Howler.  
　　  
A boy holding a camera was still flashing his flash light.  
　　  
“Your facial expression is impressive! Make sure to keep it that way for another few minutes!”  
　　  
I will keep your disoriented brain in its exact same state……  
　　  
Ginny wiped off the spit with her sleeves, and turned around to ask Hermione,“What happened last night?”  
　　  
“They had driven Mr. Weasley's flying car to school and crashed into the Whom ping Willow."  
　　  
“Cool!”  
　　  
“Let their coolness be darned.”  
　　  
Hermione folded up her Voyages With Vampires and stood up to leave in a hurry.  
　　  
“Let's go. It's about time for class. Which class are you attending now?”  
　　  
“Transfiguration. And I probably need a favor from you……”Ginny hesitated before bashfully mumbled out,“Can you get me a second-hand textbook? I have forgotten mine at home.”  
　　  
“You truly are your brother's sister.”Hermione was currently trying to burn holes into Ginny with pure will power; she still told her where to find a replacement though.  
　　  
Fetching textbooks from several different deck lockers, Ginny was almost late for class. Dashing into the classroom for transfiguration, she arrived seconds before the bell rang.  
　　  
Fiddling through her stuff for a quill, Ginny found something at the bottom of her brief case.  
　　  
It's a diary.  
　　  
Where the heck did it come from? Stroking its cover for a while, Ginny still couldn't recall its origin. Whatever, I will use this enchanted gift to do something meaningful.  
　　  
So she ripped out a page from the middle of the notebook and folded it into a tiny boat. Another piece of paper came out and got cruelly smashed into the shape of an airplane. After that, she laid the notebook flat on the table, covered it with her textbook and started to doodle cartoon image of Professor McGonagall on it.  
　　  
Just when she was scowling down at doodle McGonagall's nose and deciding to add a few strokes, the whole picture just vanished as if was absorbed by the paper. And there appeared a line of graceful hand writing.  
　　  
Your drawing is pretty.  
　　  
Ginny was shocked; she had witnessed the whole process, how the line of words were written down little by little.  
　　  
Soon, the words disappeared. And something new showed up.  
　　  
You could communicate with me by writing things down.  
　　  
Arthur's forsaken Merlin! Is this what I got, a Death Note? Ginny quickly scribbled down a few sentences: in the year of our lords 2016, Aquamarine Weasley sacrificed herself to save a drowning child. Ginny then pictured her sister's appearance in her mind.  
　　  
A century has passed before another line of sentence went into her sight: this is not a Death Note.  
　　  
Oh. So there wasn't such a thing like a free meal.  
　　  
Ginny tried to contain her disappointment, and continued to do experiments on the notebook.  
　　  
She spent the whole morning--two periods of transfiguration and two periods of History of Magic-- trying to dig out the diary's secret. But the only information she had got before noon was: he's only a streak of memory called Tom Riddle, left in there by the last owner.  
　　  
By the time of lunch, the whole school was already whispering about the wonders Aquamarine had created today. For instance, all the professors had given her permission to skip homework; Peeves answered to her requests; even Filch and Ms. Norris had become friends of hers.  
　　  
Ginny wasn't surprised at all: in the force field of Aquamarine, anything is possible. But seeing all these schoolmates' incredulous reactions still somehow made her happy.  
　　  
Open your eyes and watch it closely. This--is my nightmare for the past eleven years.  
　　  
Enjoying her stewed soup, Ginny suddenly received a photo, with her special facial expression this morning on it.  
　　  
“It's your photo. Take it.”  
　　  
Ginny took it, examined it closely before tried to poke it with her fork.  
　　  
“Why wasn't I moving?”  
　　  
“I took it with a normal Polaroid camera; I still couldn't wash magic negative films.”  
　　  
The kid with camera in hand sat down besides Ginny,“Do you like photography as well?”  
　　  
“I don't know; our family don't have a camera; it seems fun though.”  
　　  
So the boy warmheartedly give her a small intro lecture on the basics of camera and film-washing techniques. He even letted Ginny play with his camera for a while.  
　　  
Click and flash, Ginny wandered all about.  
　　  
“Are you having fun now?”  
　　  
“Of course, I am!”  
　　  
“Are you getting the hang of it?”  
　　  
“Indeed!”  
　　  
“I have more of them in my dorm; do you want to keep it?”  
　　  
Ginny suddenly stopped fooling around. She looked at this boy cautiously.  
　　  
“Why are you being this nice to me?”  
　　  
“I guess we are friends now……Can you do me a favor?”  
　　  
“What kind of favor?”  
　　  
“They said that your brother is a best friend of Harry Potter's. Can you introduce me to him?”  
　　  
Ginny smirked and said, "Why don't you go to him yourself?"  
　　  
I am afraid that I couldn't say a word in front of him. This would be too much pressure for me. A picture with him is all I want; I always thought him as the best. Said the boy.  
　　  
“You thought Harry is the best? Are you sure it's not someone else? Someone like Aquamarine, for example?”  
　　  
“Never heard of that; anyway, Harry is the best!”  
　　  
Ginny was willing to do a favor for him, for the sake of this saying.  
　　  
She just recalled seeing Ron walking towards the courtyard; Harry must be there with him.  
　　  
“I will take you to him, Mister……What's your name again?”  
　　  
“I am Colin Creevy, Ginny.”  
　　  
“How did you get to know my name?”  
　　  
“I was sitting beside you this whole morning, through all four periods.”  
　　  
When they reached courtyard, Ginny pointed Harry out for Colin.  
　　  
“Besides the reading girl, the one who is talking to the redhead.”When Ginny finished answering his questions, she threw her hands up in air.“Ron! Harry!”  
　　  
The moment Harry glanced about, Colin was already beet-red; Ginny didn't even need to say a word of introduction for him; he just rushed forwards.

“Greetings! Harry, I——I am Colin Creevy,”He nearly ran out of his breath,“I was also sorted into Gryffindor. Do you think——is there a chance——that I could take a photo of you?”He lifted the camera and finished his request with hope in eyes.  
　　  
“A photo?”Harry repeated and seemed to be at loss.  
　　  
“A photo can be proof for our current conversation.”Colin explained passionately and forwarded a few more steps,“I knew all about you. Things like how you managed to escape from you-know-who, how he disappeared and the brilliant scar on your forehead. A boy from our dorm had told us one thing: if you washed the film with the right potion, the people and scenery inside would come to life.”Colin took in a deep breath of excitement.“Marvelous, isn't it? Before the admission decision arrived, I had no idea of what magic could accomplish. My dad is a milkman and he didn't believe in magic, either. Now I wish I could send a few photos to him, if only I could take a photo of you. Would you please give me the permission?——”He looked at Harry with pleading eyes,“——Can your friend take a photo of us standing together and you sign it afterwards?”  
　　  
Colin had drawn over a huge amount of audience and the situation started to get out of hand. Catching a glimpse of Malfoy in the swarm of people, Ginny instantly knew this was not going to end well, so she did the only rightful thing to do: she fled. She had no intentions of intervening with the "crush" of Aquamarine.  
　　  
I have nothing to do with this; it's not my fault. Ginny fled back to her dorm, mumbling these words all the way back there.  
　　  
The night came and Colin had kept his words of sending a point-and-shoot camera to her. It wasn't till then did Ginny know about the part Professor Lockheart had played in there.  
　　  
Colin was thrilled and he repeated his gratitude over and over again, telling Ginny, if she ever wanted to wash any photos, he would be glad to provide her the potions.  
　　  
Why would you want to thank me? With that amount of excitement, you wouldn't need my introduction in the first place.

“You are welcome.”Ginny said this despite her thoughts.  
　　  
The existence of the diary had finally occurred to Ginny when she started to do her homework. She opened the notebook and wrote down a sentence with stately grace.  
　　  
Tom, are you familiar with the subject of Transfiguration? I might need your help for the assignment, since I haven't been paying attention today……


	12. Slugs

Ron once told Harry that he'd better pray Colin wouldn't run into Ginny, or else he would get a fan club in return. Harry did pray though. But wishes and Merlin both work in mysterious way.  
　　

Harry could detour and sidetrack to shrug off Lockheart when seeinghim in the corridor. But dodging Colin was totally something else. Since Harry tended to stay with Ron and Ginny had told Colin pretty much everything about Ron's weekly routine, Colin came to know Harry's schedule as well.   
　　

On a Saturday morning, Ginny and Colin walked to the Quidditch field, both expecting to see a play's train-off.  
　　

Ginny could see Luna waving at her in the stand from a long distance away. She ran towards her; Luna cut her out before she managed to say anything,  
　　

“I am Luna Lovegood, someone sorted into Ravenclaw. I spent the whole Registration day chitchatting with you and Neville at the end of the train. Do you still remember me?”  
　　

“Of course I do……”Ginny considered this retort as part of Luna's revenge for forgetting her name.  
　　

“That cloud of bad luck above your head had shrunk a bit. It seemed like you have been having fun these days.”  
　　

It's still there? Ginny felt a shiver run up her spine and decided to drag the subject of talking as far away from the cloud as possible.  
　　

“Luna, it's still early, what were you here for?”  
　　

“For the training.”   
　　

“Ravenclaw's team had nothing planned for today.”  
　　

“I'll check out Gryffindor's team then. That thing--”Luna poked finger at Colin's camera“can I take a look at it really quick?”  
　　

Team members of Gryffindor hadn't showed up for quite a long time.The three were bored out their mind, fondling with camera, playing rock-paper-and-scissors, exchanging word solitaire. Growing more impatient as time passed, Ginny started to tap her fingers on the bench.  
　　

“You are typing 'All hail Gryffindor.'”Luna watched her fingers closely.  
　　

“What?" Once again, Ginny was dumbstruck.  
　

“You were tapping the bench with your fingers just now. The thing you tapped is 'All hail Gryffindor.'”  
　　

“You know about this, too? How?”Ginny almost thought Luna was Ghoulie's undercover identity for a second.  
　　

“That's Morse code; a lot of us knew it back then.”Colin seemed to have a decent knowledge of this subject.  
　　

“Yep, that horse thingy.”  
　　

Their discussion about horse and morse didn't follow through. The Gryffindor team finally appeared, along with Ron and Hermione. Colinheld his camera up in the air, pressing the shutter like crazy. The sound of flash light cracked the silence of the field.  
　　

“Hey, Harry, look here!" He shrieked with his thrill.  
　　

Memebers of Gryffindor team stood there, seemingly talking about something. The vibe was kinda stiff.  
　　

“Colin, quit your shouting! You must have upset them!”  
　　

“I guess they are upset for a different reason," Luna languidly motioned them to look at the other side of the field.“Over there.”  
　　

Carrying their broomsticks, some random guy with green robes on strode into the field. Malfoy was with them.  
　　

It must be schedule conflicts then.  
　　

Red and green was seperated by the grass-matted field. A battle of words were already on.  
　　

“Let's go over there. I can hear nothing from this far.”Colin suggested.  
　　

“There's nothing new about it. Theses things all share a common routine. It's either 'We have rented here' or 'Bullshit' for the start; 'The only thing your Sharpness is good at would be sweeping." and 'Worse broomsticks are way better than worst techniques." can serve as theargument catalyst.”Ginny has mastered the art of argument making for a long time.  
　　

“The quarrel got worse.”Colin was peeking from his binoculars.“Is that brunette girl Hermione? She joined the fight as well.”  
　　

“Let me see.”Luna took the binoculars"Uh hum, quarrels did become fights in the end.”  
　　

Ginny didn't need a binocular to see Ron using magic to attack on……well, himself……  
　　

That wimpy whomping-willow-wounded wand.  
　　

Colin ran down the stand and was bouncing around Gryffindor's members. It was at this point that Ron opened his mouth and a mouthful of sluggs fell out on his chest.  
　　

“Are you alright?”This scene grossed Ginny out to the extent of needing Luna as a walking stick.  
　　

“Um,”Colin quickly held out his camera,“Harry, can you support him for a moment?”  
　　

“Colin!”Harry turned to gaze at Ginny,“You guys go play else where; we are taking Ron back to the castle.”  
　　

“'kay……”Ginny reluctantly took away Colin, knowing he would be tracing the latest news on Ron's puking incident if given the chance.  
　　

They walked Ron outside the field, towards the edge of the Forbidden forest.  
　　

At dinner time, Ginny had heard that Ron would be having detentions in the show room ,cleaning up trophies. She guessed the cloud of bad luck must have migrated to habitat Ron's head. While Aquamarine was passing by, she heard the news as well. She snorted and said.  
　　

“Everyone has made a terrible mistake in this unwanted accident. It's only a stupid drama of fighting over the usage rights of the Quidditch field. How couldn't I afford a broomstick for my own brother? And Draco is known for his great flying technique, how could Ron said that he was only in the team for a wealthy father? What a bunch of childish kids! He had brought this on himself.”  
　　

And then, she walked away gracefull with a cup of coffee in hand.  
　　

Pfff, if everyone had all made a mistake, then why Ron was the only one suffering for the consequences? Ginny thought it unfair. Especially the last six words——he had brought it on himself. She was determined to help Ron in tonight's detention.  
　　

On her way to the show room, she saw Luna.  
　　

Luna joyfully told her she was just heading to find her. She also asked whether Ron was still baffing out sluggs or not. Luna had found the professional naming of the slug: it should be Agriolimax agrestis Linnaeus.   
　　

That was unrelated to our probelm here, thought Ginny.  
　　

“If the baffing still hasn't stopped, have some salt then. Sluggs would melt at salt. A frog would be great for his health, too. Frogs ate sluggs.”  
　　

“How do we deal with the frog inside him afterwards?”  
　　

“Eat a snake. Snakes swallow frogs.”  
　　

“What about the snake?”  
　　

“Take a small dose of slugs. Look, it said that,”Luna flipped open the encyclopedia,“Slime of sluggs is deadly poison to snakes.”  
　　

Ginny knew, if the asking went on, it wouldn't do Ron's well-being any good. So she cut in,  
　　

“Thanks for your kind advice, Luna. But Ron has stopped puking already.”  
　　

Luna seemed kinda disappointed.  
　　

Ginny sneaked into the show room and found her whiny brother. He hadn't recovered it, spitting out a few little slugs from time to time. Ginny doubted whether she would be beaten if she told him Luna's curing theory. She fetched a rag and started scrubbing.  
　　

“Stop zoning out, or else you wouldn't get any sleep tonight.”  
　　

“Why are you here?”

　　

“I guess it's quite obvious. I am here for trophy cleaning. Where's Harry? Isn't he supposed to be cleaning trophies with you now?”  
　　

“He is just fine, replying letters for Harold now, probably.”  
　　

“He must want to switch position with you.”  
　　

“Get lost now. Or Filch would have you killed the time he was back.”Ron turned to gaze at the door.  
　　

“He wouldn't be here for a long time. I just saw him ruining some first-years' life in the south tower. Hurry up; I would be gone the moment you finished.”  
　　

The two kept up with the pace, scrubbing to reach Filch's strict standard, trying to let the trophies shine the show room.  
　　

If you hate dim light this much, go get a light bulb would be much easier. Why would you even come up with this evil idea in the first place? Ginny thought Filch's imagination is unique in its own sense.  
　　

After three hours' hard work, Program "Lit the show room with shiny trophies instead of light bulbs" is satisfactorily finished. Ginny starteda small talk with Ron.  
　　

“Bro, you've been having a bumpy day.”  
　　

“Something has been on for more than one day……Ginny, has it ever occurred to you that……”Ron zipped the question up.  
　　

“Finish your question. What has occurred to me?”  
　　

“Nah, it's nothing, just some peculiar presumptions. Nothing beneficialto your own good.”  
　　

“Say it then, otherwise I would be sleep-depraved, pondering aboutit all night.”  
　　

Under Ginny's carrots and sticks, Ron hesitantly opened up to her.  
　　

“Sometimes, I thought, Aquamarine was……kinda weird……Have youever got this feeling that……you would unintentionally do and say something stupid when she was looking?--I wasn't saying that she's th e only reason behind all my stupidity, but……I guess, a majority of y wrong deeds were done in her presence. Maybe, it's because she was so great that everyone else was dwarfed by her achievement……Or maybe I was just seeing things, or making up excuses……I was so messedup; did you even know what I am talking about?”  
　　

They didn't get the time to reach a further conclusion; Ron puked, this time much worse than the last. He rushed into the toilet and didn'tcome out.  
　　

Dear Ron, of course I understood what you were talking about. After all those years, you finally got it! Just go out and barf for the time being. And there would be no need to worry, I won't let your efforts be drained in vain; I will finish the course you left behind, and protect the honor of House Weasley from disdain.  
　　

Ginny buried her head into rags and buckets of water, struggling to scratch off the trace of slime left by the slug on the trophy.  
　　

Okay, there went the T……hmm, the 'M' was cleaned as well……That Rwasn't greasy in the first place!……Ah, I hate those ds, and they were both tough cookies……One last letter! The e, small and dwindled……  
　　

Finished! Newly cleaned and shone, a Tom Riddle ready to be shrined!  
　　

Ginny stared at the base blankly.  
　　

Tom Riddle?!


	13. Diary

Luna lengthened the time Ginny spent at the library. They were thereneither for revision, nor for preparation. They were looking for the strangest book in the world.  
　　

“I knew there exists a certain kind of books.”said Luna,“You will experience the same thing you read about in it. Unfortunately, these kinds only tell horror stories.”  
　　

“My dad had confisticated a book called 'Sonnets of Magicians' once. Whoever read it could only speak in sonnets the rest of his life.”  
　　

“Sounds like a good book! But it could never beat the 'Joke Bumper'; that book, has recorded the last bitter joke in the whole wide universe.”  
　　

“I have something even BETTER! It could literally talk to me.”  
　　

Luna was too startled to continue their little competition.“You said you have one. For real?”  
　　

“Why would I even lie to you on this kind of matters? I will show you then.”  
　　

They found a quiet corner and Ginny took her notebook out.  
　　

Tom. Ginny wrote. How is life?  
　　

Fine as always. Thanks for asking. How is yours though? The thing Ginny scribbled down had vanished and a new line of words appeared.  
　　

My friend couldn't believe that you would talk to me. Please say something to her.  
　　

……What should I say?  
　　

These will be just fine. Thank you.  
　　

“See? I didn't make this up.”Ginny tweeted in victory.  
　　

Luna took the notebook from her hand and observed it cautiously. She found a label on the back cover.  
　　

“It seems like something bought from Muggles' stores. I bet he's not a pure blood. There is the address and name of the journal dealer.”  
　　

“I didn't see a problem here. There are a ton of half-bloods out there.”  
　　

“When did you get this thing? What did you tell him? And did he reveal anything to you in return?”  
　　

“I found it in my book during our first Transfiguration class. At first, Ithought talking to him was fun, but then I realized he was keeping something from me, covering up anything about himself. He also sounds like an idiot!”  
　　

“Ginny,”Luna pondered about it,“Maybe your asking stupid questions leads to him talking nonsense.”  
　　

Luna is almost perfect, except for her sharp tongue.  
　　

“Let the idiot-talking thing slip. I still thought Tom was a good guy. He was said to be a student here fifty years ago, probably a quite outstanding one. I once saw his name on a trophy in the show room. He had received Special Award for Merit! And he tutored me on my assignment!”  
　　

“Are you sure he's not doing it for you?”Luna had an interest in rubbing unwanted truth into people's face. "It doesn't matter whether he's helping your assignment or passing test for you, Ginny. You can't trust him! Anything with thoughts possesses a certain degree of danger within itself.”  
　　

“Of course I didn't trust him! I knew he was a liar from the first letter he wrote down. There's not even a word trustworthy about him.”  
　　

“What did he say exactly?”  
　　

“This is the thing I drew at that time. Take a look.”Ginny recreated the same image on another piece of paper.“He told me it was pretty.”  
　　

“Liar!”Luna nailed the conclusion.  
　　

“I asked him afterwards, 'I just ripped two pages out of you and doodled a mess on you. Are you mad at me?' He was like, 'I didn't mind at all.'”  
　　

“He must be lying. If I were the notebook, I would definitely have your ass kicked.”Ginny thought Luna was being too honest and open for her own good.  
　　

“I know, right? So I only told him trivial things.”  
　　

“Ginny, this thing only seems to grow more interesting. Let's poke our nose into Riddle's deep dark secret! Anyway, we don't have anything to do in the first place.”  
　　

“You have a plan then?”  
　　

“I won't call it a plan though. Let's spit the work first. I'll go check the history of our school, and you. You go talk to Riddle. Cuz conversations communicate informations. He will probably lose his advantage over us.”  
　　

“Nope. I won't do it.”Ginny had a bad feeling about this.“If anyone is going to lose anything here. It's gotta be me.”  
　　

“What could you possibly lose? You could even hand over the archive of your life to him without losing anything. Your personal information might be the last thing he needed.”Noticing Ginny's wince, Luna added,“But, your thoughts on doing it low-key is probably right. Well, if you don't know what to write on it, just scribble down your daily life. Consider it as a diary if you can. When he saw something he was interested in, he would totally talk to you. From those things he cared about, we can at least have a clue about what he wanted.”  
　　

“Keeping a diary? Nah thanks. It only brings troubles and doesn't work at all.”Ginny didin't buy it.  
　　

“How do you know it doesn't work? Have you ever heard about thisTolstoy dude? Ya know, the Russian guy who wrote good books and told good stories?”Luna decided to employ Great man's personal anecdote to convince Ginny.  
　　

“What about him?”  
　　

“For fifty years, Tolstoy had kept diary-writing as part of his daily routine.”  
　　

“Then what?”  
　　

“And then? Then he died……”  
　　

“What's the point you're trying to make here? Keeping a diary will eventually kill you?”  
　　

“Just write it already!”  
　　

At about the time for dinner, Ginny was almost convinced into buying this whole idea of diary writing. Because she was having this illusion that if she said 'no' to it, she will never hear the end of this and dinner would become something she can only eat in her dream. Ginny packed up her bag and walked to the hall. On their way there, Luna said.  
　　

“Can I ask you one thing?”  
　　

“Shoot.”  
　　

“Why bother doodling down a troll in class?”


	14. Hermione's Fortune

Ginny was writing her diary across Hermione, and she noticed her company widening a smile while reading a letter.  
　　

“Hermione, does anything good happen?”  
　　

“My parents bought me fancy stuff.”  
　　

“What about it?”  
　　

“Laptop notebook.”  
　　

“For what?”  
　　

“For lots of things. With a laptop notebook, one can read books, download films, watch cartoons, listen to musics, do research and even talk to their friends at any time they want.”  
　　

“It can do ALL those cool stuff?”  
　　

After that small exchange of conversation, Hermione went back to her dorm for some sleep. The next morning when she was passing by the public lounge, she saw a Ginny napping on the desk with a notebook open-up in her lap. Hermione shook her awake.  
　　

“Why are you sleeping here?”  
　　

“Ya liar,”Ginny lifted her head from the desk, eyelids still dropping,“I put a notebook on top of my lap. Why can't I see anything?”  
　　

Hermione…well, she wasn't sure what to say.


	15. Deathday Party

Ginny and Luna spent the last few days before Halloween in library.  
　　

“The founding concept of Halloween is about paying tribute to the Pumpkin King.”Luna had decided to tear her gaze from 《Cinquante Jours de Mystère en L'année》for a while.  
　　

“Pump who?”  
　　

“You are a lost case. Everybody knew about the Pumpkin King. On All Soul's Night, he would fly out from the pumpkin field and sent gifts to each and every one of the good kids. Well, since you considered him a total superstition, I guess there wouldn't be any present for you this year.”  
　　

Another incredulously weird thing Luna had faith in.  
　　

Ginny set down the camera she was just fondling with, and asked,“Have you ever received anything from him before?”  
　　

“I do. But it's a long long time ago, when my mum was still alive. I haven't seen him ever since; I guess he was just too busy to care.”  
　　

Having just brought up Luna's mother, Ginny suddenly regretted asking that question.  
　　

“The best thing about Halloween is legalized trespassing and blackmailing. We can do literally anything to get what we want.”Ginny was struggling to lighten up the mood.“Yep, trick-or-treating! Old Ginny's all time favourite!”  
　　

“We're stuck in school this year. So, no trick-or-treating.”  
　　

“That's kind of a bummer.”  
　　

“In order to kill some time,”Luna smirked,“let's go somewhere interesting on all soul's night.”  
　　

“Where exactly?”  
　　

“Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party.”  
　　

Some time ago, when Luna was wandering about, bypassing the storage cell on the third floor, she had ran into the scene of Nick and Peeves cooperating to push over a huge trunk. For two unprepared ghousts, moving object with that kind of weight requires far more strength and force than they had. Luna was warmhearted enough to remind them about the lever principle, so she picked up two broomsticks from the far corner, placed them on a small case and pried up the trunk.  
　　

Falling to the ground, the trunk created a great sound.  
　　

“Well done! Now run for your life! I just saw Filch coming up!”  
　　

Fast like a lightning, Luna ran away with Nick.  
　　

She was told later that day: they had done this to draw Filch away from picking up on Harry. Nick also told Luna about his deathday party on Halloween, saying she could come if she want.  
　　

“Come with me. Our school will hold a Halloween party in each andevery year to come. But Nick's deathday party was something special,something you wouldn't get to see in another five hundred years!”  
　　

“I wasn't even invited.”  
　　

“Paying tribute to the dead is every living man's unshakable duty.”  
　　

While it's unshakable, it means that duty couldn't be shaken and shrugged off like nothing.  
　　

The Halloween was just around the corner and the Hall was once again decorated with living bats. Those giant pumpkins grown by Hagrid were carved into huge lanterns, each of the size suitable to containthree students. Professor Dumbledore somehow went to the length of booking a skeleton dancing troupe. And don't even get started on the evening feast! The time Ginny was dragged away by Luna, she felta little part of herself had been dead and left by the long table.  
　　

Ginny and Luna had received Nick's warm and cold welcome in the dungeon.  
　　

Warm attitude and freezing temperature.  
　　

The scene in there were far from believeable. Hundreds of pale and translucent figures were floating above the dancing floor, waltzing to the horrifying rhythems. On the platform beneath the dark curtain, a symphony were playing saws wholeheartedly. The chandelier above their heads shining a glassy shade of blue, their breaths got turned into mists. It was just like walking into a ice tank.  
　　

Ginny held the camera up high and started shooting like crazy.  
　　

“You still havn't returned that to Collin, have you？”  
　　

“He didn't mention a specific time for returning and he hadn't come to me yet.”  
　　

A ghoust short of stature came up from under the table, and hoveredin the air before the camera lens.  
　　

This little rascal had a bright yellow party hat on, an ever-rotating bow tie attached to his collar, and a smile carved into the feature of his wide face. Contrasts to all others around, we could even say he's the least pale and translucent of them all.  
　　

“Would you be so nice to have a bite?”He took a plate in his hand.  
　　

“Thank you! That arrived just in time.”Ginny didn't spare it a glimpse before stuffing them into her mouth; they taste funny; since it would be rude to spit them up, Ginny forced herself to swallow it down.  
　　

“Your livings could also eat this?”Peeves' eyes lit up,“Those youngknuckleheads refused to have this meal just now.”He sighed,“Nowadays, young people care about food no more.”  
　　

His speech had given Ginny creeps and she was on the edge of being grossed out; she whispered to Luna,"Find out what I have just eaten, please! I didn't dare to look.”  
　　

“You just ate a fistful of mouldy……”  
　　

“Nooooo! Please stop! I suddenly lost any interest to learn about the truth.”  
　　

Luna shrugged, signaling a sense of 'whatever you say, I don't mind'.  
　　

“Go fetch your friends alive.”Peeves poked out a chubby finger,“That way.”  
　　

“It's your brothers.”  
　　

Looking to the direction pointed out by Peeves, they saw Ron, Harry and Hemione on the other side of the table, alongside with a milky white girl.  
　　

“They've made Myrtle moaning again.”Peeves gloated.  
　　

“Why would Myrtle even need a reason to moan? She had found ends within moaning itself. In other words, moaning was her arts, her purpose of existing and her life itself.”said Ginny.  
　　

“I knew how to put an end to her moaning! You just went up and asked about her death; she would be glad to tell you.”Luna stepped forward,“Myrtle, please tell us about the way you die! I really wanted to know.”  
　　

“Really? I thought no one in the world cared about poor Myrtle's death anyway.”Her moaning stopped,“Ah, that was just terrible.”She seemed to be relishing the flavor of this very sentence.“It all happened in the girl's room on third floor. I died in one of those stalls. I could still remember the day when I hided away from Herble's mean comment on my glasses. I locked up the doors and wept inside the stalls. But suddenly I heard someone came in. They were speaking in a weird language I couldn't quite understand. Anyhow, I also heard a boy talking. So I opened the door and told him to go mind his business inthe boy's room, and then——”Myrtle puffed up a little and highlighted her anecdote,“I died.”  
　　

“But how?”asked Harry.  
　　

“I don't know,”Myrtle replied in a voice of calm,“I only recalled staring into a pair of huge yellow eyes. After that, my whole body was lifted up, and then I floated away.……“She gave Harry that bizarre look as if she was still in her dream, "I came back later. I decided to haunt Herble, oh--she never regretted more about making fun of me! Have I told you the things I had done on her wedding? It was forty yearsago, end of May or early June, I heard……”  
　　

Myrtle told a story about wedding, a tale about dog, a folklore of grandma's tippet and some rumors of cake. None of them is unrelated to the suffering of schoolmates who had once laughed at her. Her stories made Ginny dizzy and nauseated.  
　　

“I am not feeling well,”Ginny glanced at Myrtle,“It's not about your stories……I……”  
　　

“Are you feeling like throwing up?”Luna said casually.  
　　

“Why would you know?”  
　　

“You just ate a handful of mouldy peanuts and they contain aflatoxin. Take a small amount of aflatoxin, and you'll feel sick, drained, dizzy and feverish.”  
　　

“Take a large amount of them, and you'll get cancer or even die if the odds are against you.”Hermione added.  
　　

“You're a glutton. And that's final!”They hit it off.  
　　

“I want to head back……”  
　　

Five walking in the dark corridor, Ginny was a little upset that all of them had used her as an excuse to ditch the deathday party.  
　　

“Oh no, Nick! Ginny had eaten something bad; she's losing it! We need to take her to the medical wing!”Pretending to be suffering from great pain, Ginny got carried out by her friends and were thrown onto the ground the first instant they were outside the dungeon.  
　　

“You did have put on some weight.”

　　

Ginny gazed at Ron and took a secret vow of never buying him anything for his wedding.  
　　

Harry suddenly stopped and held onto the nearest wall, listening attentively. He stared at the dark corridor.  
　　

“Harry, what are you——”  
　　

“Listen!”Harry blurted out,“Have you guys heard anything?”But nobody heard a sound.  
　　

“This way!”He shouted and rushed onto the staircases. The others followed along, though still not knowing what's going on. Harry didn't stop till he reached some dark corner on the third floor.  
　　

Ginny held her camera up high, clicked the shutters for several times and wished to create some sorts of light, lighting up the dark corridor. The crack of shutters echoed through the hallway, making everyone uneasy.  
　　

“What the hell is going on?”Ron wiped sweat off his face.“I couldn't hear a thing……”  
　　

Hermione instantly gestured them to look at the hallway and sucked in a breath of startlement.  
　　

“Look！”  
　　

Something was glimmering on the wall in front of them. Step by step, they walked into the alley shrouded by darkness and widened their eyes.  
　　

On the wall painted some glowing letters under the flickering light of the torch.  
　　

Unintentionally, Ginny had read it out aloud.  
　　

“The secret chamber is opened. Enemies of the heir, be... What's that last word again? I bet it started with an 'm', but the curly handwriting was just too messy to be recognized!”  
　　

“'warmed', indeed.”suggested Ron.  
　　

“That's gotta be 'swarmed'.”said Luna.  
　　

“It's 'warned' for Merlin's sake!”Hermione snarled.  
　　

The floor was drenched by puddles of water. Ginny cautiously walkedup to those words and press the flashlight at something dark under it. Realization hit her in an instant--Mrs. Norris, the keeper's cat, was hung on the torch, her body stiff as a stick, eyes widened as if saw something unspeakable.  
　　

“Erkkkk——”Ginny cried out.  
　　

“What did you see?”  
　　

“Hang on guys. I'll be back in a second.”  
　　

Luna used her shoulder as a leverage to support Ginny. The two quickly disappeared into the nearby bathroom.


	16. Dobby

Seldom did people define 'luck' as 'having just eaten a handful of moldy peanuts.' However, Ginny's 'seldom' had to be today.  
　　

Last night's nauseating feeling had arrived just in time. Although thepain was earthquakingly liver-blasting, Ginny and Luna still had dodged a bullet for her longer-than-necessary stay in restroom. Unlike Harry and the other folks, they weren't caught right on the scene and none of the charge had fallen on them.  
　　

They could still hear what had been going on outside the restroom, though.  
　　

Earthquakingly, indeed.  
　　

Harry's record was still clean; however, a tide wave of public suspicions had already risen against him.  
　　

That night, Ginny and Luna didn't come out the stall till Myrtle had come home.  
　　

“I kept bumping into you this day.”Myrtle told Ginny,“You did move fast.”  
　　

Ginny asked her about the situation in the corridor. Myetle said,“Not even a soul had dropped by.”  
　　

Ginny was relieved. She could finally sneak back into her dorm.  
　　

Early on the morning of that weekend, Ginny met up with Luna in the library.  
　　

“How was your talk with Riddle?”Luna brought it up.

　　

“Good.”Ginny decided to slight over this subject.

　　

“Good in what kind of ways? Did he say anything at all?”  
　　

Ginny shrugged, approving Luna's undertone without a second thought.  
　　

“What exactly had you written down each day?”  
　　

“See for yourself. They hadn't changed a single letter ever since the first day I had written them down.”  
　　

Luna flipped open the diary. On it wrote:  
　　

Day 1  
　　

I've been hanging out with Luna today. It was fun.  
　　

Day 2  
　　

I had been hanging out with Luna yesterday. It was fun.  
　　

Day 3  
　　

I had been hanging out with Luna the day before yesterday. It was fun.  
　　

Day X  
　　

I had been hanging out with Luna some day a month ago. It was fun.  
　　

“Ginny, out of humanity concerns, I motioned to have you buried ina hole dug out by yourself. Don't wait till I have done something other than that……”  
　　

“Luna, I was never meant for diary writing! Plus, there is no point in keeping a diary!”  
　　

“Before you had made Tom speechless, keeping a diary was always a wise thing to do. Hand me the notebook. I will have a talk with him real soon.”  
　　

“Diary writing is dangerous! Others could get to know your secrets at any time!”Passing over the notebook, Ginny lowered her voice,“For instance, I have come to know Hermione's secret!”  
　　

Hermione had a habit of diary-writing, she carried her diary around all-day-long and would scribble something down each time she caught a chance to do so. When she was occupied, she would leave the note on the pile of books beside her. Last time when she had left for a glass of water, Ginny had taken a peek at its contents in that minute. Out of curiosity, of course.  
　　

“It recorded Professor Binns' words. He said that the secret chamberwas built by Slytherin himself and only a true heir could open it, freeing the monster inside while getting rid of everyone except for the purebloods. They had also lied to Lockheart, in order to get a book out of the Forbidden area. Guess what they are trying to get?”Ginny tuned her voice down for another three volumes.“Polyjuice potion.”  
　　

“For what use?”  
　　

“They suspected that Malfoy was the heir and decided to get a word out of him. Hermione was rendering that potion in Myrtle's stall. It would be finished in a few more weeks.”  
　　

“A quick word about it……”  
　　

“Sup?”  
　　

“You sure, you only took a peek at it?”  
　　

Though considering Ginny shameless, Luna was still quite drawn towards this news.  
　　

“I say we drop Riddle's matter for a while.”  
　　

“We should have done that a life time ago.”  
　　

“Secret chamber should be our top priority.”  
　　

“I wondered where did all your energy and strength come from.”Ginny tapped on the writing desk, telling Luna could go poke her nose into other people's matter all she want, as long as herself was left alone.  
　　

Terrified by what we are going to find out, are ya? Luna tapped back.  
　　

“Luna,”Ginny sighed,“I have been praying for the last eleven years, hoping to get a few days of peace. Would you be so kind to leave me alone for the rest of my life?”  
　　

“Muggle had a saying, which I considered inspiring. They said: a cook who didn't want to be a general, could never be a great nurse.”  
　　

Ginny knew in her guts that it couldn't be their original saying.  
　　

“What does it mean?”  
　　

“Let's wrap it up a bit. It told us, a man without a great purpose was nothing different from a corpse.”  
　　

But having a life of peace was a great purpose, for me, at least. Because it seemed quite impossible. Ginny moaned to herself. These sayings weren't making any sense; I did have a great purpose, yet I was still no different from a corpse, being stepped ever on and on.  
　　

“Luna, can we wait untill next week's Quidditch to come up with another great purpose?”Ginny took a step back.  
　　

“Honestly,”Luna was smiling dreamily,“I have been looking forward to it, too.”  
　　

The day had arrived pretty soon. And for Ginny, it had become another proof for a self-evident truth——  
　　

Anything Ginny had been looking forward to would get totally ruined.  
　　

That day, Ginny was flooded over with dizziness stonger than ever, upon her entrance into the field. Glancing around Slytherin's stand across the field, she was trying to find her sister. However, there were just too many students, rising up on their feet, shouting, fading into inseperable pixels. The force field of Aquamarine had grown stronger once again, covering the whole stadium. Ginny was afraid that she had still held something back; Ginny was afraid that maybe, just maybe,she had the power to influence the whole school.  
　　

Something bad is going to happen.  
　　

The Quaffle on the field went wild, in the same way Ginny had forseen, churning around the field with a murderous attempt towards Harry and Harry only.  
　　

"That Quaffle had got to be cursed.”Luna said calmly.  
　　

“Hatred and curse couldn't be that strong. Only a kiwi can.”Ginny felt as if her head was being torn apart. She continued with all her might.“Each time I got a headache, she would definitely be involved.”  
　　

Luna seemed befuddled. Ginny tried to smirk a little. Sometimes, even you couldn't understand.

The fun came out sour.

　　

Taking away Colin's binoculars, Ginny didn't give up on searching Aquamarine's location among the crowd. 

I won't let you get away this easy.  
　　

Slytherin tend to stick together and they seldom sit among other houses, which was in Ginny's favor of people finding. She had just seen Malfoy, but her sister was still no where to be found.  
　　

They should be in the same place.  
　　

“Ginny,”Luna pressed her binoculars down a little,“Here's an interesting fact. Harry would be worn out in the east half of the field, yet he seemed to be way better off in the west.”  
　　

Something clicked in Ginny's head. If anyone was trying to use the Quaffle to attack Harry, then he got to be watching him closely. If he was on the watching stand, he would have no problem seeing the whole field. However, the field is too crowded for such a thing and he would be singled out immediately. It had to be some place outside the field.  
　　

Ginny glanced around. The north is vertically lower with a river flowing through. Dark mountains had taken over the east and west side of the school; with the force of today's rain, nothing could be seen fromthat far. On the south laid the academic building, with a tower right across the watching stand. Ginny recalled seeing the shadow casted by the tower in the afternoon.  
　　

That's it! Away from the crowd, free from unwanted disturb, and withan appropriate sight of the field. However, the presence of the tower had blocked a few angles from here to there, leaving an attack vaccum.  
　　

A figure had appeared behind a north facing window.  
　　

There went the criminal.  
　　

“Thanks Luna, you are the best. I will be back in an instant! ”  
　　

“Take your time.”  
　　

Ginny dashed into the academic building, swiping through each andever corridor, till she finally found a familiar figure on the third floor, her twin sister. Different from her previous assumptions, she hadn't been standing in front of the window. She was facing a southern wall, looking for something. 

Looking for what?  
　　

“Why hadn't you come to see the game?”Ginny's voice had even surprised herself a little.  
　　

Aquamarine was startled, seeing her elder sister gazing down at her from behind. She inpercetiblly scowled.  
　　

“What's so good about that childish little game anyway?~~”She squeezed out a weary smile,“You hadn't been watching it either~”  
　　

Whose fault do you think it is? Ginny cursed inwardly.  
　　

“I am heading to the library.”Noticing her sister's silence, Aquamarine walked up and held her shoulder gently,“Wanna come along?”  
　　

“No thanks, I just got outside of my bedroom. I've been having a headache; I probably need Madame Pomfrey's help.”Ginny tried to small talk along.  
　　

“Have rest and take care.”  
　　

“Chillax, I will recover soon.”  
　　

Aquamarine grinned and strode down the stairs leisurely. From the gaps of the handrails, Ginny had seen her walking past the hall, towards the library. She sighed with relief before heading back.  
　　

Just now, Ginny pondered, I had read her thoughts about finding a certain tube. She had been getting stranger.  
　　

Walking past second floor's corridor, she noticed something yellowish. With a second look at it, she found it to be a house-elf.  
　　

Standing on the windowsill, with only a pillowcase on, he pointed hisbony finger at the sky, swiping from side to side. Glancing towards the direction he pointed out, Ginny couldn't help but cry out.

　　

There went the Quaffle, striking straight on Harry's elbow.  
　　

Merlin the Nimue fairy! He would either be crippled or dead!  
　　

“You! You shameless bastard! It had been you all along!”  
　　

That little monster was so stunned that it fell off from the windowsill.While he struggled to maintain eye contact with Ginny, fear welled up from his tennis-sized eyes.  
　　

“Dobby hadn't, hadn't done anything! Little miss!……”  
　　

“You liar! I saw it! I saw you trying to get Harry killed!”  
　　

“That's not true! Dobby would never hurt Harry Potter!”  
　　

That little freak shrieked, and hopped onto the windowsill. With the window bursted open, Ginny could only think of one thing: it shall not run off. She climbed onto the sill with all fours, and sprung outside the window to take it in hands.  
　　

A piercing noise crackled in her ears, and the elf was gone. Several feet away from the outer walls of the nothern tower, Ginny was left alone in mid-air, with only a pillowcase in hand.  
　　

She suddenly regretted her recklessness.  
　　

But it was too late.


	17. Pillowcase

Gryffindor had won and into the hospital had Harry gone.

 

Laying on the bed beside Harry's, Ginny was waiting for her leg to grow back into shape. She had to wait till mid-night.

 

"You hadn't missed anything. Except for the part when Lockheart made Harry's bone vanish. That had been insane--I've never seen an arm like that before--I wish you have seen it too." Luna's mind seemed to be wandering off from Ginny's bedside.

 

"If you really want to check my arm out...It's still available now." Across the aisle, Harry was waving his rubber-glove-like arm at her.

 

Ginny was suddenly grateful for her previous fall. If she had fallen from some place higher than the second floor, she wouldn't have had the chance of seeing such a peculiar thing.  
　　

"How come you had also got your bones crashed?" Ron asked her.

 

"I...I slipped! And I beg you, please don't tell Percy!" Ginny decided to tell them the truth later, when there were fewer visitors around.

 

She hadn't got the chance to do so that night. Madame Pomfrey kicked all of them out in less than a minute; she didn't leave the cell, till all the patients had fallen asleep.

 

Something was chasing Ginny in her dream. The mist was thick as milk, shrouding everything in white. Not a thing could she see, and onlyforward could she run. On her insane dash, she tripped over herself and bashed her forhead into something soft and damp.

 

She cracked her eyes open and saw a house-elf in raggs wiping her head with a sponge. His eyes were all watery, his vocie whispering,

 

"Dobby hadn't meant to hurt Mister Harry Potter. Not in a million years."

 

"Dobby...you could stop now," Ginny protested weakly, "I am not Harry."

 

The elf widened his eyes and watched more closely. In tens of a millisecond, he was bumping himself against the wall.　　

 

"Bad Dobby! Bad Dobby! How could he not tell Mister. Harry Potter from others?!" His yammering cry had scared the hell out of Ginny. He was so loud that Ginny was afraid that Madame Pomfrey could be drawn to their cell.

 

"Is there anyone screaming my name out aloud?" On the other side of the room, in a wall-sided bed, a question bursted out.

 

"See? He was over there!" Just after nicely pointing out the right direction for him, Ginny was immediately stricken with realization. She hopped out her bed and captured Dobby in her arms, "Harry! I have caught him! He was the guy in the academic building, manipulating the Quaffles to attack you! He also caused my fall!"

 

"For real? That went way across the line!"

 

"Just like I said! This kind of behavior shouldn't be tolerated! He should be questioned!"

 

Dobby didn't even fight it. He cried, giving Ginny creeps in more than one way.

 

"I haven't done anything yet! What's that for?" Guilt washed over Ginny at once, as if she was the one who chanted the Quaffle.

 

"Harry Potter had gone back to school," He mumbled, heart broken, "Dobby had warned him over and over again! Aye, my good sir! Why wouldn't you just listen to Dobby? Why didn't you just go home when you missed your train?"

 

"You knew each other?" Ginny had lost track of what this conversation was leading to.

　　

"How come you would know about I failing to catch the train?" Harry asked.

 

Dobby's lips quiverred.

 

"It's you, isn't it?!" Ginny tossed Dobby onto Harry's bed.

 

"Yes, and Dobby had to iron his own hand afterwards for his crime. But Dobby couldn't care less, because he thought Mr. Potter was back to the safety of his home. Words couldn't describe Dobby's shock when he heard about the adventure Mr. Potter took to get back to school. He even burnt Master's lunch! Mister..."

 

"You almost got Ron and I expelled," Harry said stiffly, "Had I not been dis-armed, I would have you choked this instant!"

 

Dobby gave him a faint smile.

 

"Dobby had already got used to death threat, Mister. Dobby could receive up to five one of those back at home."

 

"You should have seen this one coming," Harry's tone was a slight shade gentler. "After almost kicking me out school, you once again plotted to kill me with a Quaffle."

 

"Taking your life was never my intention! Like ever!" Dobby was stunned, "Dobby only wanted to save Mr. Potter's life!"

 

"I got it!" Ginny snapped her fingers, "You are one of those fanatics! And your religion held death as one of the means to the final redemption!"

 

"Dobby...you," Harry gulped," that's not true, right?"

 

"Lady redhead," Dobby bursted into tears again, "If you had known about Dobby's fear and misery, then you would have never laughed at him ever agin!"

 

He grappled at Harry's blanket, "Mister, now is the time! At Hogwarts,something horrible had already happened or was going to happen. Dobby wouldn't allow Mr. Potter to stay here. The secret chamber will open soon--" Dobby froze; he was too scared to move at first. Then he took hold of the kettle on Harry's nightstand and smashed it ontohis head. After almost falling to the ground, he sighed and started togrumble, still gazing down at Harry's pillowcase, "Bad Dobby. Very very bad, Dobby!..."

 

"So there really is a secret chamber?" Harry whispered, "That means--you said it had opened before?"

 

"Secret chamber wasn't the only thing you need to worry about! Mary sue is about to come! It will play a trick on you, all of you!"

 

It's the second time Ginny had heard this word.

 

"What's a Mary Sue?" She didn't know why she had asked this question, as if Mary sue was not a single person, but a shared identity.

 

Footsteps were heard coming from the corridor.

 

"Dobby can't tell! Dobby gotta go!" The little elf was frozen into its place, with only ears flapping frantically; he turned to Ginny, "Lady Redhead, it would be nice if you could return Dobby's pillowcase. Dobby hadn't much to wear."

　

"Okay?..."

 

Ginny fumbled over the stuff on her bed and found the pillowcase on the nightstand.

 

"Here you go."

 

"Merlin blessed you, milady!" Dobby put his pillowcase back on, "Flee for your life, Harry Potter!"

 

"Flick-flock", and Dobby disappeared.

 

Ginny quickly returned to her bed and closed the curtains.

 

Through the slit of the curtains, she saw Professor Dumbledore and McGanagall coming inside with a statue in hold.　

 

From their conversation, Ginny had learned that the secret chamber was reopened and another victim was created. It was Colin, who had come to visit, grasping a bunch of grapes.

 

After the professors' departure, Ginny took away the grapes and shared them with Harry. In honor for Colin's kindness.


	18. Still in the closet

“Luna, let's start the search for the secret chamber.”Ginny fetched Luna the next day during their breakfast.  
　　

“Why were you suddenly so concerned about it？”  
　　

“I am gonna seek revenge for Colin and his grapes！”  
　　

So did Ginny tell Luna about yesterday's events.  
　　

“Secret chamber isn't the only thing we need to worry about? And Mary sue is our mortal enemy? I mean, what the heck?!”  
　　

“Whatever the heck is that, Malfoy should be at least in part invovled. Even Dobby's pillowcase were embroidered with Malfoy's heraldry.”Ginny had always found behaviors of the high-born ridiculous. They were one step away from claiming all the nampkins by taging their heraldry on them.“Luna, I decided to tell Ron about our investigation.”  
　　

“Good, two heads were always better than one.”  
　　

Upon their entrance into Myrtle's stall, Ron, Harry and Hermione were startled to see Ginny and Luna there. Ginny's negotiation with them went pretty well, because of the Ace card she played: it's either assistance or disturbance the three are gonna get.  
　　

Their investigations were no success, with Christmas right on the corner, they still hadn't found useful clues. All of them had signed to stay at school in early December. Rumor had it that Malfoy was also staying, which was suspicious in all sense. But, there came the right chance to ask questions.   
　　

Hermione claimed the polyjuice potion is almost ready, but they still need the horn of unicorn and skin of boomslang. And the only placethey could harvest both, would be Snape's private stores.  
　　

Ginny had checked her schedule: she had Defence against Dark Arts in Thursday afternoon, which is also the time for third graders' Potions class. Ditching Lockheart is no big deal--thought Ginny, that means if I made it to Snape's office, I would find nobody there. Great! Marvelous! Less is more and the perfect plan is the simplest one!  
　　

It's Thursday afternoon. Ginny were seated in the far corner of the classroom. Their second period still had half way to go. While Lockheartwas in his usual obssesion with himself and his self-written-and-directed banshee hunting stories, Ginny sneaked out the classroom and into the dungeon. Hear the lecture from the nearby classroom, she suddenly felt secure enough to break in the office on the next corridor. She started to pick the lock the instant she located the material closet.  
　　

Ginny had learned lock-picking from the best; and in her case, that would be from Fred and George. They were willing to teach her, because she had agreed to take the risks for them: to open the food storage and steal candy. But Ginny didn't really do that. She just found her mother and said, "Would you be so kind to give me two piece of candies? One for Ginny sis and one for me!" Aquamarine's identity had always been her back door to more treats. So she got two candies andlearned her most important lesson in life: a dog should always bark up the right tree.  
　　

Picking the lock with a thin wire, she was pondering about that incident years ago: George and Fred weren't actually looking for candies, and they might be checking whether Ginny had the guts to do it or they might want to see what happened if one were caught.  
　　

Bros, I do possess the guts, and--I would never be caught!  
　　

A hand on her shoulder had scared all Ginny's courage away.  
　　

“I am doing nothing! I was just passing through! I thought the design of this closet was marvelous and I just……”  
　　

“Shush!——It's me.”  
　　

The hand from her back seemed to belong to Hermione.  
　　

“Hermione?Don't tell me you are also here for potion materials?!”  
　　

“That's supposed to my line!”  
　　

“Had it not been me, there would be no one to open the lock for you. Plus, this one is anti-spell!”Ginny held up her thin wire,“I am about to force it open.”  
　　

“I wonder what you do in spare time.”  
　　

Ginny knew it's unlocked from the touch. In a flash, she opened the door, grabbed two small packets, kicked it close and ran off with Hermione in hand.  
　　

“Did you grab all the stuff we need?”  
　　

“See for yourself; this, it the horn of the unicorn, and that……is broom slang skin!”  
　　

Hermione stopped in panic, almost tripping Ginny over.  
　　

“Boom slang skin is what I need.”  
　　

“You sure about that?"  
　　

“Yes!”  
　　

Ginny was getting nervous：“It only differs in a letter, so it shouldn't matter! Right?”  
　　

“It matters. A lot.”  
　　

Ginny was genuinely afraid of the attention Hermione's roar might draw, so she said instantly,  
　　

“You should head back now! If you are out for too long, it would get suspicious. I will go fetch it!”  
　　

Hermione checked her watch: there was not much time left; this would be the only way.  
　　

“Take care and don't get messed up again.”  
　　

“I know, I know; the bloomslang——skin!”  
　　

Ginny returned to the office and before she could open the closet, she had heard the footsteps in the corridor.  
　　

And dead. There were still several minutes till the period would end. Why would he come back this early? If she come out now, this could be the end of Ginny Weasley. Her only chance would be……  
　　

The door cracked open, and someone had entered the office. From the noise it created, Ginny could tell that it had pulled out a chair andhad seated itself. Seven or eight minutes passed and there were still no sign of leaving. In her hideout beneath the potion closet, Ginny were too nervous to take in a breath and she felt like being choked to death.  
　　

A few minutes had passed before a second person walked into the office.  
　　

“You showed up.”This voice belonged to Snape, but what about the former one?  
　　

“Uncle Seave——”  
　　

It's the Kiwi, I should have know it.  
　　

Ginny would like to trade away her happiness and fortune of a life time, if only she could remain in secrecy for today.  
　　

“I have been worried about her recently; she was so absent-minded in class!”  
　　

“She has always been that way.”Snape's voice was in daze.  
　　

“Such partiality...Don't you ever mind to take care of that?”  
　　

“There goes the old saying: one can never hatch a chicken from a kiwi fruit.”Snape halted.  
　　

“I always thought she were borned without a brain,”Aquamarine sighed,“But she was still someone of my concerns.”  
　　

“What do you want me to do?”  
　　

“She was always doodling on that thing; I considered that thing a problem. Take it from her and give it to me. Please.”  
　　

“Aye.”  
　　

Who is this 'she' anyway? Always scribbling and doodling, how boring! Squeezed inside this tiny place, Ginny felt a hundred years had already passed and eavesdropping on the ongoing conversation had made her situation no better.  
　　

Aquamarine held personal grudge towards some thing that scribblesand doodles, while sincerely hoping that their stuff should be taken away.  
　　

Some thing that scribbles and doodles...A pen, it is, right?


End file.
